While women have always been crucial to coffee production in Peru, men traditionally held the economic power. In 2004, 464 female coffee producers in Peru united to change this dynamic and take a step toward empowerment. Since then, the Café Femenino movement has grown to include thousands of women farmers from nine countries across the world. The AMACA (Asociacion de Mujeres Productoras Agropecuarias del Cauca) is a group of all-women producers located in El Tambo, Cauca, Colombia that was formed in 1999 by 80 women from El Tambo, in Colombia’s Cauca department.
AMACA is 140 smallholder members STRONG with all women farm owners and heads of household.
All of the members support their families via the cultivation and production of coffee. In 2008, AMACA partnered with the Ministry of Agriculture, the governor of Cauca, and the municipality of El Tambo to increase the production and quality of coffee on 80 members’ farms.
A premium is paid to AMACA above the value of the coffee itself to support their goals and aspirations as a group. Their mantra is simple: to improve the quality of life for their members and their members’ families. These premiums can help them to accomplish these goals and in turn, support this passionate and strong-willed group of women in their love for and livelihood of quality coffee. BRING IT LADIES!