I arrive in the bustling city of Chiclayo, Peru to air thick with a vibrant mix of aromas – fresh street food being prepared, market herbs, and the breeze of the Pacific Ocean drifting in from the nearby coast. Heavy traffic flows less like an organized system and more like a living, breathing organism. It’s chaotic on the surface, but a single, unified movement beneath.
I’m in Peru to meet with the women farmers of the CECANOR Cooperative, who grow our Organic Peru Cafe Femenino, and who we have had a relationship with for seven years. Each day of this trip is the adventure of a lifetime and one that I will not soon forget.
We begin each morning by leaving Chiclayo and heading to the countryside. Winding through the towering Andes of Peru, the country roads are narrow, dusty, and cling precariously to the mountainsides. I immediately note how much work goes into just driving to meet the producers, let alone getting supplies, coffees, and other needed goods in and out of these communities. One day a 16km trip (about 10 miles) takes us over 2 hours because the road is so rough and has been washed out multiple times.
Over the course of five intensive days visiting multiple producers there is a lot of time for reflection. We are welcomed into homes and immediately treated as family. The passion and pride the producers exhibit shines through in the care and attention to detail given to the coffee and the treatment of their guests.
I felt incredibly honored to be invited on this trip, to share meals with these families, and to have a lesson driven home that in the end we are all more interconnected than we realize. Other lessons learned include:
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Gratitude comes easily when you realize that what you consider basic – safety, opportunity, and even hot water—is someone else’s dream.
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The amount of labor that goes into producing coffee is astonishing. This is something I already knew, but it’s crazy to me every time I see it.
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Coffee should and ultimately will cost a lot more. As breweries fetch $7-$8 for a pint of beer produced from local ingredients and coffee shops charge $3-$5 for something sourced from across the world, it’s important to remember where this product is coming from and the labor and logistics that go into it.
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Paying a premium for coffee, supporting organizations like Fair Trade, and having organizations that directly fund producers really do make a difference. I witnessed buildings, roads, and tools that have been given to producers to help support their work. We currently pay a premium on each pound of Cafe Femenino we purchase, and we aim to give more as we are able.
We are so lucky to be in partnership with the CECANOR Cooperative and the small hold producers that make up this cooperative. They grow truly beautiful coffee and are such a great example of people coming together from communities across a region in Peru to benefit the whole.