Sustainability is incredibly important to Mio, and they have many projects they are working on to support social, economic and environmental stability. They pride ourselves on a 100% traceability guarantee for the entire crop every year. Each stage of the journey, from where the cherries were harvested, which trucks moved them, how and when they were processed, is tracked using satellite imagery. Being a technology-driven farm improves the farmworkers’ quality of life, ensures an abundant harvest and guarantees the highest processing standards for the crop. The world coffee supply chain consists of a large number of steps. Mió aims to oversee every part of the process. Buying coffee from Mió is as trustworthy and straightforward as buying vegetables at your farmers’ market.

Mio’s state-of-the-art processing facilities include: a wet-mill, concrete patios, raised beds, ambient-air drying rotating machines, wood silos, cross-beater hullers and a density separator. The beans are then sorted further according to size and colour using an oscillating screen and optical-electronic system.

“Mió is, first of all, a farm in Monte Santo de Minas, a tiny town where I was born 30 years ago, and so was everyone in my family for at least four generations. Last year we decided we did not want it to be just a farm anymore, we wanted to export our coffee, import into the UK ourselves, store it here and sell directly to roasteries. We dreamed of making the term direct trade actually mean something to our farm, and everyone involved in the process” says Ana.

More About Café Femenino...

Women have always been at the heart of coffee production in Peru. The economic power though? That sat with the men (shock!). In 2004, 464 female coffee producers decided to change that. They separated their production, gained visibility within their communities and partnered with OPTCO to create a market specifically for women-produced coffee. That was the beginning of the Café Femenino movement, which now includes thousands of women farmers across nine countries. Café Femenino requires cooperatives to give women farmers control of revenues, land ownership and recognition for their work. The women of Cecanor have used those funds to build children's libraries, schools, health programmes and literacy initiatives in their communities. Turns out when you invest in women, they invest straight back. Funny that.