Café Femenino

Café Femenino

12.02.2025 tildamaria.turunen

Café Femenino is a social responsibility programme that supports women coffee farmers by ensuring that they are directly compensated for their work and can make their own financial decisions. The project was set up in 2003. The initiative came about when a group of Peruvian women wanted to create a separate supply chain to combat gender inequality in coffee farming, where women were often excluded from economic benefits and decision-making. With support from the Organic Products Trading Co (OPTCO), the Café Femenino model was developed to promote women’s economic empowerment, leadership and better social conditions in coffee production areas.

Today, Café Femenino has expanded beyond Peru to other coffee producing countries such as Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia and Brazil. It operates as an independent programme, working with various coffee cooperatives to ensure that women receive a fair wage and recognition for their work. Later, the Café Femenino Foundation was also set up to fund community projects such as women’s education, health care and infrastructure improvements in coffee-producing areas.

While each roaster roasts their Café Femenino coffee beans differently, each is fully committed to Café Femenino’s mission, which is a direct and fair compensation to women coffee farmers for their important role in the coffee industry.

Café Femenino

Region: Bolivia, Brazil, Guatemala, Colombia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Rwanda, Sumatra
Producer: Women farmers’ cooperatives in different regions

Reija Paakkinen, an entrepreneur of Mokkamestarit, received the first Cafe Femenino coffee from women farmers in Peru in 2016, through many stages and obstacles. Women in cooperatives tenaciously maintain coffee farming and strive for better living conditions in unequal conditions.