Café Femenino is a community-based grower-support initiative in coffee-growing regions that is dedicated to ending the cycle of poverty that affects female coffee farmers around the world. It exists in nine countries, including Peru, Sumatra (Indonesia), Brazil, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Mexico, Colombia, and Rwanda.
As part of this partnership, Kerry will provide access to its global distribution network for the group’s coffee production.
Leigh Anne Vaughan, Global Strategic Marketing Director, Taste at Kerry, said in a press release: “With this partnership, our customers anywhere in the world can now access and support the distinctive taste of the premium fair-trade coffee produced using high-quality, organic-certified coffee beans from women growers in Sumatra and Peru. Consumers can also be assured that the women responsible for the production of the coffee beans have been compensated directly for their work, and also provided the opportunity and resources to enact positive change in their home communities and on their own terms. Through this partnership, Kerry will be the only company worldwide creating coffee extracts from the beans of Café Femenino growers. Kerry is delighted to partner with the Café Femenino community program.”
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Local Café Feminino programs help their women farmer members receive payments and payment premiums directly, and help them assume leadership roles in co-op voting and on boards. The members also secure the rights to the land they farm, to produce Fair Trade Certified and organic-certified coffees.Sabina Cecanop, Founding President of Café Femenino Peru, said: “We have used the money we’ve received from the Café Femenino premium to invest in improving our homes, providing education for our daughters, and improving the food we feed our families. Café Femenino has been wonderful in improving the self-esteem and empowerment of women in the community.”
Since 2003, the Café Femenino coffee program has been an ethical sourcing model committed to ending the cycle of poverty affecting women coffee farmers around the world. For more information, go towww.cafefemenino.com. A video on the Café Femenino-Kerry partnership can be viewedhere.
