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FIRST STEP ︳ PRODUCTION

the speed of a conveyor is the more carefully women pick the
beans. In Central America there is a relatively big number
of women, who are involved in testing and roasting. When I
went to El Salvador to be one of COE international judges, I
met Anny Ruth; Anny is one of the managers of coffee farm,
where modern technologies are used to plant coffee. Being
proficient in English and Spanish, she did her studies in USA
and then studied all about specialty coffee in Specialty Coffee
Association of America (SCAA). She visited a lot of farms in
Central America to introduce concepts of organic planting and
to review current use of sun and honey process of washing
with the help of technologies, that she discovered in her farms.
And from our conversations I also got to know that their farms’
picking team mostly consists of women, too. She told me once:
“Women, that pick cherries, are more careful and patient,
they can do a lot of work, that needs extra care.” This way of
management support women’s labor.There are also women
cooperatives, like the one we collaborate with, Indonesian Xia-
guang female cooperative. Due to the political situation, many
Qinru Gu women are widows and single mothers; this cooperative try
to help them by providing work places and accommodation.
Those women cherish the opportunity, that was given to them,
Coffee at its origin is the female kind of work and as a result, they provide even better coffee than standards
ask for.During my trip to Colombia, I was honored to receive
Coffee is mainly grown in so-called “coffee belt”, which award for the achievements in Asian coffee industry from an
includes numerous small coffee farms, treatment plants, rain Indian cupping judge, Sunalini Menon, who made an incred-
forests, from where coffee is originally from. As a professional ible contribution into the world of specialty Robusta plants;
cupping judge and member of international jury, I think that Sunalini’s dedication to work and researches inspired me a lot.
the main activity in my work is to go to the farms to check During the conference, we always had breakfast together, and
them and taste the coffee. Because of coffee I fly around the after all our conversations I felt that if we have more outstand-
world to Africa, America, Asia and even Central America. Of ing leaders like her, one day coffee world will recognize that
course, during my trips I can notice that, as cities and cultures women’s knowledge and work are equal to men’s.
are different, level of gender equality is also different in every
place.Before becoming a cup of warm drink: coffee tree plant-
ing, taking care of it, collecting cherries and filtering – all of
the steps cannot be separated from women’s labor. According
to statistics, in every kilo of coffee beans, 70% of it comes We just do not need to pay that
from woman’s hands. But only 15% of land and product own-
ership rights belong to women. much attention to gender differences
October 2015, I was very honored to receive Interna-
tional Women Coffee Alliance (IWCA) invitation to go to and then we can start
Colombia to participate in annual meeting and give a speech
on behalf of China emerging market. During this conference talking about equality.
I met coffee industry women from all around the world and
got a deeper understanding of production situation. In every
coffee growing country women do very different jobs and can
achieve different positions. For example, in some African and
Asian countries women are only involved in cherries hand-
picking, it is very boring and mechanical work. Processing
factories usually use belt type conveyors, controlling how
fast beans move, women sit on both sides of the conveyor
and continuously pick beans with any defects; the slower

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