In Sumatra, Kokowagayo is a women-owned and women-managed coffee cooperative on the Aceh province. Kokowagayo has 567 farmer members from seven villages in the Bener Meriah districts.
Kokowagayo is an abbreviation for Koperasi Kopi Wanita Gayo. The group has 18 women in leadership roles — a chairwoman and business manager, a secretary and collector, a treasurer, a chair supervisor, two member supervisors, four collectors and eight delegates.
Café Femenino
Kokowagayo is also part of Café Femenino, a supply chain/framework with the radical idea of giving women farmers credit for their crucial roles in the coffee industry. Traditionally, Café Femenino operates as a women-only program inside of mixed-gender cooperatives; Kokowagayo is an exception, in that the co-op is entirely comprised of women.
The Café Femenino Foundation, a nonprofit established alongside the Café Femenino program in 2004, provides grants to the program’s farmers to help them enhance their lives and the lives of their families and communities. Kokowagayo has used grant money from the Foundation to provide leadership and financial training courses to its members, as well as to build a community center above their wet mill. The center functions as a safe space where the women can gather, learn new skills and organize.
Cupping notes: Milk chocolate, caramel, berries, nuts; balanced and creamy.
Images: Café Femenino.
