Our mission

Consumers care now more than ever how a product was made, and how workers were treated along the way.

 

We found that the people and communities behind the amazing coffees we are drinking are often invisible, and we wanted to change the narrative.

 

We want to uplift women-grown coffee, to give the amazing women behind the coffee production the respect, recognition and opportunities they deserve.

 

 

Coffee is a much-loved daily ritual around the world with global sales reaching into the billions. Yet women coffee producers have historically been overlooked and under-compensated. Reports show that women often comprise up to 70 percent of the manual labor on coffee farms—planting, picking, processing, sorting—yet are far less represented in decision-making, trading, analysis, or business ownership.

 

Even more problematic is when women do own their coffee farms studies show that they receive far less revenue for their coffees. This is due to a lack of access to resources, markets, and underlying bias.

 

In many countries land ownership is not transferred to a wife after her husband dies, emigrates, or simply leaves home. This is the same with membership in cooperatives, which is often registered in the husband’s name and frequently remains non-transferable. Land ownership is vital to securing working capital loans and finance for long-term investments in agricultural enterprises. Without land ownership women producers cannot obtain finance to grow or strengthen their business.

 

 

Additionally, women producers are overlooked in agriculture extension programs where underlying bias is common. These programs often seek out male producers, as well as  larger farms, which are normally not women owned.

 

Finally, women-headed households are often subject to the double burden of domestic tasks and farming activities. The time commitment required to care for a family and home, in addition to a farm, has been identified as a main driver of inequality between women and men producers.

 

We find it very exciting supporting people who are working through the gender norms to build better lives for themselves and their families. It’s well known that women invest far more of their income into their families and local communities, lifting everyone up in the process.

 

 

So by making the simple choice to drink coffee roasted by us at Bean Inspired, you are supporting our policy of linked prosperity - creating benefits out of the business decisions that you make, so that all along the value chain there is a sense of prosperity.