Cafe Femenino was founded in the Amazonas region of Peru in 2003 as a grassroots effort to address the crippling level of poverty faced by women coffee producers and their children. Although women do between 40% – 60% of all the field labor in coffee, they usually do not own the land they farm. As a result, they seldom get paid for the fruit of the land. The program changes that dynamic. Women farmers who are part of Cafe Femenino own the land they farm. They are paid directly at a rate above Fair Trade. They have full control of their money. They receive the resources necessary to produce and market world-class coffee so they can become successful business owners.
Women in remote and rural coffee communities face a host of challenges that keep them trapped in poverty. Women do between 40%-60% of all the field labor on coffee farms. However, because they do not own the land, they typically do not benefit from the fruit of the land: the beans. In most cases, women must turn their harvests over to the male head of household who markets and sells their coffee for export. Very little of that income finds its way back to the farm or family, leaving women coffee producers and their children in extreme poverty. This poverty leads to a host of social and economic repercussions. Café Femenino changes that dynamic.
The idea was launched in northern Peru, when 464 women farmers decided to take a stand. They decided to stand for something bigger than themselves. They decided to stand for something bigger than coffee. They decided to stand for the idea that women should get paid for their work. So these women separated their coffee harvests from the harvests of the men in their community and took their beans to market themselves, calling their product Café Femenino (or women’s coffee in Spanish). In that moment, for the first time, this group of women created their own product and their own income. And they created a powerful future for themselves and their children. When we pay women for their beans, 90% of the income flows back to the farm and family, according to independent research from the Specialty Coffee Association and anecdotal research from our work. Women invest their income in improving their farms and communities while ensuring that their children receive better nutrition, healthcare and education. Café Femenino now includes over 5000 women producers in nine countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Rwanda and Sumatra.
Café Femenino is a for-profit business model with fundamental operating controls. To participate in Café Femenino, women must have: legal rights to the land they farm, the ability to accept direct payments for their green and the ability to maintain 100% control over those payments (we pay above Fair Trade for green,) leadership positions within their communities, and financial and decision-making power for their business. The real impact has been the creation of 5,000+ women business owners in marginalized communities, increased market value of the green coffee (payment above Fair Trade), reduction in physical, emotional and sexual abuse, increased food security, family incomes, access to health care for women, increased school attendance among girls, better living conditions for farm families, and consistently higher quality coffee (90+ Points in Coffee Review Feb 2020).
Café Femenino gives women coffee producers their fair share by providing direct compensation, leadership opportunities and land ownership rights to women producers. It is an amazing business opportunity for women that changes their lives, as well as inspires other women coffee farmers to do the same.