Written by Andrea Otte, CCR Head of Coffee

For those who have been following us for a while, you may have heard of our efforts to raise the economic potential and representation of women farmers in the coffee industry through our homegrown Female Producer Programme. Since January 2021, when our programme was formalised, we have expanded from our original target of sourcing one-third of our coffee from female farmers to a very ambitious one-half, as well as donating 10p per kilo from the sale of all our women’s coffees to charities which work with women and families in coffee growing communities.

In 2022, our second year of the programme, we roasted over 85,000 kilos of coffee grown by women, totalling 41% of our total volume. Though we fell short of our 50% goal, our program supported ten different women’s associations and feature single origin offers from seven individual female producers. This year, we are well on track to exceed our target, with 60% of all 2023 coffees roasted grown by women. This is partially due to a change with one of our key partners – our friends at the Brazilian cooperative COCARIVE, where we buy coffees which make up the base of our signature espresso, the Daily Blend. Supporting women farmers with COCARIVE has allowed us to increase our numbers as well as raise more money for our charity donations in 2023.

Speaking of, through our 10p per kilo commitment in 2022, we’ve begun funding a new project with the support of the Chain Collaborative, a charity whose work focuses on training local leadership in coffee communities. Our friends at the Sholi Cooperative in Rwanda, with whom we’ve been working for over three years, are joining the Chain Collaborative’s Incubator Program with funding from Caravan’s Female Producer Programme. This exciting new project, to be conducted over two years and led by members of Sholi, will train young women on how to grow organic coffee on a collective plot of land donated by the coop. As many of the participants are single mothers without land of their own, this program will have wide-ranging impact to their families and the wider community, allowing them to gain skills and income, as well as education on sustainable farming.

Additionally, last year through our Female Producer Programme we funded another project with the Chain Collaborative, this one in Guatemala with the women’s group JOVEMCAFE, in the region of Aldea Com, Huehuetenango. In February 2022, with our partners Primavera Coffee, we visited JOVEMCAFE just as the project was getting started. Now in its second year, the women have designed and built a hen house which is owned and operated by the group, providing fresh, organic eggs to all the group’s members as well as providing crucial income, particularly during the off-harvest months when money from coffee production is scarce.

We are continuing our support of these two projects by the funds raised by sourcing and roasting coffees grown by women – keeping more money in women’s pockets, and raising awareness of the huge role they play in coffee production, both on and off the farm.