- By Shirin Moayyad, Coffee Buyer
It was only in Houston airport that I realised our importer of Las Hermanas coffee had missed his connecting flight from Mexico. And that I would be traveling to Nicaragua that night with no interpreter, and a sum total of 10 Spanish lessons behind me. I didn’t even know how I was going to get to the hotel, so scant is my knowledge of the language.
I might have known, however, that the warmth of the Las Hermanas cooperative members is such that any communication gap can be bridged. Strength of character, integrity, hard work and true grit transcend their linguistic barrier. No one at Soppexca - the 650 member strong cooperative to which Las Hermanas belongs - speaks English. Everyone I met managed to communicate at least a part of their stories to me (see below).
That was in February 2006.
Peets first tasted this coffee in 2001 and was surprised by its fine quality – this isn’t necessarily a region known for exceptional coffee. The leader of the cooperative, a woman, had identified the clarity of the cup, and attributed it to the innate nurturing qualities of women: they take better care of their land and progeny alike because they are, by nature, caregivers. The co-op had organised the women and assisted them in gaining legal title to their own land for the very first time.
A simple scenario unfolded: as a result of the premium priced contracts with Peet’s, Las Hermanas was able to obtain low-interest, pre-harvest finance at the start of each growing season and secure loans against these purchases. They enabled women to develop rigorous quality control and training programmes, producing top cupping coffee and investing back into their community and future. Knowing it takes quality to be recognised on an international scale, the women have implemented unprecedented quality control measures including their own cupping lab – the only one of its kind in the area.
This February, I returned to Nicaragua (with not much more Spanish) .
If this news sounds a bit “preachy”, and not the exotic travelogue you expect from a coffee buyer, it is because the message I walked away with from Nicaragua this time is HOPE. Dare I say the audacity of it?
My sense is that there have been profound changes in the co-op since I visited two years ago. They have moved beyond subsistence and into self-sustenance: sustainability. The women are being empowered and given confidence and belief in themselves, knowing they have the ability to better their lives.
The co-op has prioritised women and the need for women to move ahead. They have codified this need in a Gender Policy which states that cooperative members strive to establish equality among members, men and women. In particular, this policy is designed to promote justice, respect, equality, solidarity, integration and participation to improve the lives of all members and their families. Domestic violence results in mandatory explusion and no one who practices discrimination is allowed to join. Cooperative members are exhorted to act as examples in their communities, maintaining good relations with their families and neighbours with special emphasis on honesty, responsibility and decency in their everyday lives.
A set of practical guiding measures level the playing field for women and allow them equal access to coffee funding (both credit to buy more land and pre-finance for coffee cultivation); agronomy extension services, training, legal land title, voting rights within the cooperative and many other unprecedented measures. What is good for the women, they say, will be good for their families and, hence, their communities.
The producers of Las Hermanas are actually part of a larger cooperative of coffee growers (SOPPEXCCA) that includes both women and men. Here is a quote from their Gender Policy:
“For every woman who is tired of acting weak even though she is strong,
There is a man who is tired of acting strong when he feels vulnerable.
For every woman who is tired of acting as though she were stupid,
There is a man who is tired of being expected to know everything.
For every woman who is tired of being thought of as an emotional female,
There is a man who is denied the right to cry and be delicate.
For every woman who has not had access to a satisfactory job a decent salary,
There is a man who is exhausted from bearing all the financial responsibility for his family.
For every woman who takes one step towards her own liberation,
There is a man who discovers that his own path to freedom has become a little bit easier.”
On my 2006 visit I first met Flora de Montenegro, one of the star producers of Las Hermanas quality coffee. At that time, she had built a new house for her family on the strength of her earnings as three-time winner of the Cup of Excellence competition for Nicaragua’s best coffees.
This February, in response to my question of how her co-op had voted to spend their Social Premium - paid to the women together with a quality premium above our contracted coffee price – she held up her 10 month-old baby girl and said: “Here’s my social premium!”
This woman understands the gifts in life. The co-op lent her money to buy more farmland, thus providing an economy of scale whereby she can earn more than just enough food to carry her through tomorrow. Instead, she now has sufficient means to stop worrying about today and look forward to what next week or year can bring for her children. Each child now has two school uniforms and a pair of shoes. For each she wishes a better education than she had, yet the intent to return to the 10-acre farm she has built up for them.
Across from the farm lies an 87-acre nature reserve that she, her father and siblings have set aside for future generations. They allow no hunting, logging or commercial planting here. Native plant diversification is promoted and they believe – from droppings – that jaguars have found refuge, as have mountain lions, native Quetzal birds and many other indigenous fauna.
We took two hours away from coffee to hike to the top of this mountain where each could, in their way, reflect on the progressive improvements coffee has brought to this community.
The next day, one of the Hermanas farmers, María Elia Castillo, told us this story of hope and inspiration.
She and her husband were landless labourers before the government reforms of the early 1990’s. During this period, the government gave her husband over 12 acres, but the family had neither the money nor access to credit needed to work the land. Maria Elia had difficulty providing a dignified life for her family. She and her husband continued to work as labourers on other coffee farms in order to provide for the family, though even with this work, they struggled to send their children to school. They were very poor.
With care, the couple eventually saved sufficient money to plant 500 coffee trees on the husband’s land. Wishing to invest further, they secured a $2,000 loan from the Coffee Bank. Through a series of bank sell-outs and insolvencies, the original loan became $ 4600 which the beleaguered family only managed to repay with difficulty in 2007.
In 2002, María Elia still did not own any land of her own but the following year her husband gave her legal title to 3.5 acres of his. Through the parent cooperative of Las Hermanas, which she had now joined, she obtained lower interest credit to invest in the land and increase productivity. Her coffee sales allowed her to help repay the family’s final debt.
In 2007, María Elia invested $600 to buy 2,000 new coffee plants. To diversify her income and improve the diet of the family, María Elia also invested in several non-coffee projects. She bought 10 sheep; her flock has now grown to 37. She bought 7 chickens; her flock has now grown to 25. She earns extra disposable income both through the sale of sheep and eggs. To improve coffee shade, she planted 150 banana trees, 20 other fruit trees, and 50 timber trees.
Her two youngest children, Flor de María and John Everth, are members of the cooperative’s youth group which educates the community on environmental issues. They are also members of the children’s band and have participated in painting classes offered by the cooperative. Flor de María, a high school junior, received a cooperative scholarship for her education and works part time as a barista at the cooperative café, Jinotega’s only European-style coffee outlet.
With her increased and diversified income, María Elia has improved the living conditions of her family. She bought a table and enough chairs that now her family can sit down and eat meals together at one table. For the first time, she was able to buy beds and mattresses for each of her children. Small measures to you and I perhaps; vast improvements to her life.
María Elia says that over the course of her life, she has gone from being a landless peasant to being someone who owns her own land and has control over her productive and financial resources.
She takes pride in being part of Las Hermanas, which she considers a trustworthy organization. She believes her children are learning to play a leadership role in the community through their schooling and participation in cooperative youth activities. She feels like a productive and valued member of her family and her community, thanks in large part to the support she has received through her membership in the cooperative and her role as a producer of Las Hermanas quality coffee.
Visit peets.com to learn more about the Las Hermanas Initative or to buy Las Hermanas Coffee.
Will there be any Las Hermanas Coffee This Year for Sale2009
Posted by: David | February 27, 2009 at 03:46 PM
An inspiring and heartwarming story!
Posted by: Margaret Macom | July 14, 2008 at 11:46 AM