Women in coffee

I may have just arrived from Guatemala by the time you read this. The International Women’s Coffee Alliance (www.womenincoffee.org) or IWCA recently held its board meeting in Antigua, Guatemala and I am honored to be the only woman of color or non-American to have been appointed to this esteemed group of coffee ladies. The term is from February 2024 to December 2026 and I cannot wait to start projects in our side of the world, meaning Asia, with special focus on the Philippines, of course.

Even after we established IWCA Philippines some 12 years ago, people still ask, why only women? Are there not men in coffee? Yes, of course there are men in coffee because as a traditional commodity (next to rice and corn), coffee has been a largely male-dominated industry. I remember 25 years ago when my co-chair said: “Coffee prices are decided by men in blue suits at the New York and London exchanges” and he almost told me we could not do anything about global coffee prices. Well, not anymore.

Coffee prices have been soaring worldwide and we just hope that the producer or farmer gets his or her fair share of this caffeine boom. For the consumer like you and me, we just have to be ready to pay just a little more to sustain our coffee farms and to keep farmers happy. The high prices should also be an incentive for younger people to get into coffee farming and not just the other end of the trade which is the sexier part – coffee shops, roasting and joining barista competitions.

Coffee trees last for many lifetimes as we have seen century-old trees in Benguet and in other mountainous areas. These start as seeds from the coffee fruit itself, sown in special loam soil and compost and finally planted to be firm and strong trunks that can withstand wind and rain. We always start from seeds, contrary to what others believe is the faster way – cuttings or plantlets – as sown seeds that grow into seedlings are often stronger stocks.

The young generation is poised to be the next generation of coffee farmers so they can see the fruits of their labor (pun intended). The coffee matures in three to five years and bears fruit once a year, although there are fly crops in other areas, where they can harvest at odd times too. It is not for the farmer rushing to make a quick profit but it is for the relaxed farmer who just prunes the trees and waits for the annual red ripe “cherries” to be picked. Many people, believe it or not, have not seen a coffee tree. This is why we conduct coffee tours, so people can better appreciate the journey from seed to cup. It is a long and arduous process but well worth the time because coffee is a special product we all love.

Women usually are better at picking red ripe fruits, while men help in drying them naturally or processing them in various ways to achieve different flavor nuances. The fruits are raked regularly under the hot sun to achieve proper dryness or moisture levels.

Once milled or hulled, women again get back to work to sort and pick defects from the better beans. This tedious process allows only the good beans to be sold and roasted to get into your coffee cup. Notice how women are in the picky parts of the process – picking only the ripe fruits and then again choosing the good beans from among defects and natural aberrations such as the peaberry.

In first world countries, usually the importing countries, women importers are also rising to the occasion, buying their raw green coffee beans from women farmers, cooperatives and associations. In our country, where we are now a net importer, women stay at the producer and processor part for locally-sourced coffee. Women sort the beans and now are also in the next part of the process, which is coffee roasting.

This is why the IWCA is ever-growing as a group established to help and support women in the coffee trade. The coffee producing countries in Africa, Latin and Central America are well represented in our 35 chapters around the world. As populations increase, there are more coffee drinkers born every single day – especially in the most populous countries India and China. I remember giving a talk in a Shanghai café when Ted Lingle, a noteworthy coffee icon, took me to these women in China who got introduced to the idea of IWCA through our sharing of IWCA Philippines’ history.

In India, we look forward to February when we visit the IWCA India chapter headed by Sunalini Menon, whose group was inducted as a chapter in 2013 together with our Philippine chapter. We both carried our flags proudly when we got recognized as the newest chapters then. Yes, there are also women in coffee or IWCA chapters in Australia, Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam. And very active chapters in Korea and Japan.

So what do women do with coffee anyway? We plant, process, roast, then brew as what men do but because of groups like IWCA, we are empowered to make changes in the industry, not just in our own countries but globally as well. We share best practices such as designing ergonomically-appropriate coffee drying tables, made for women’s heights (average height in coffee producing countries is lower than most male counterparts). We design and improve on equipment used, such as sorting tables that do not further tire our women sorters.

Because of the role of women in making sure you get good coffee in your cups, many corporate sponsors as well as NGOs have come forward to lend support to women in coffee. The likes of USAID through the Gerry Roxas Foundation, International Trade Center (www.intracen.org) and USDA all have gender-responsive programs in coffee. It’s high time our gender and development (GAD) budgets in all NGOs use their funds for women in coffee, too.