To celebrate International Women’s Day, we’d like to highlight some fantastic achievements by women in the coffee industry.
Alison Hall, MBE
An inspiration to modern women across the globe, Alison founded the fantastic charity Seeds for Development. She heard about the plight of farmers in Uganda at a conference in 2007. She resolved to work with them to improve their livelihoods so that they could become financially self-sustaining. Seeds for Development loans farmers the seeds they need to grow their produce and lets them repay the financial value when they can. Starting first with pineapples and then developing to growing coffee on a commercial scale, we are proud to sell two coffee variants from farmers supported by Seeds for Development. Both the Uganda Zombo and Uganda Bukonzo are delicious, 100% Arabica coffee.
Alison was awarded MBE for her services to Victims of War in northern Uganda in the 2019 New Year Honours list. Congratulations, Alison!
Melitta Bentz
Melitta is a leading name in the coffee industry as a provider of machines, accessories, and cleaning products. However, this massive company started with Melitta Bentz, a German woman frustrated with how poor her coffee tasted when using the then traditional filtration method – a cloth. She experimented with using paper until she’d found the perfect brewing method. In doing so, shes invented the modern day filter. Melitta founded the company of the same name in 1908. The company has only grown, now employing 3,000 employees as of 2015. It’s only fitting we praise Melitta Bentz on International Women’s Day, as the coffee industry would be radically different without her innovations.
Explore Melitta’s range of products here.
Eira Maria Suarez
Panama Hortigal Estate is a coffee farm that’s owned and operated only by women: Eira Maria Suarez and her daughters. It’s a speciality coffee that regularly cups at 85+ according to the SCA. Rich and creamy, it has flavours of sugar, citrus, and graham crackers.
Suarez oversees each step of the coffee production process. She ensures that the farm creates maximum yield while minimising production costs and waste. The Suarezes say that they maintain strict farming and maintenance guidelines each season to guarantee consistency and an optimized production. “The farm,” they add, “is a legacy we hold dear and aspire to build upon each day.”
Learn more about Panama Hortigal Estate here.
