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Las Hermanas
Las Hermanas is a co-operative of women in Nicaragua. Each woman farms her own small plot of land, as well as processing and milling the coffee themselves. Over the years, membership of the co-op has allowed these women to share knowledge, training, agronomical practices, as well as building strong social and health networks.
We've been buying coffee from the women of Las Hermanas since 2001, and every year that our coffee buyers visit, we're inspired anew by the advances they've made - both in quality of coffee, but also in their quality of life.
In February 2008, Shirin Moayyad, our Director of coffee purchasing, visited Las Hermanas. This was her second trip, and this, in her own words, is the story of the changes that just one co-op member has witnessed.
"In 2006 I visited Flora de Montenegro, a small farmer member of the Las Hermanas cooperative in Jinotega, Nicaragua. At that time, she had built a new house for her family on the strength of her earnings as three-time winner of the Cup of Excellence competition for Nicaragua's best coffees.
 In February 2008, in response to my question of how her co-op had voted to spend their Social Premium - paid to the women together with a quality premium above our contracted coffee price - she held up her 10 month-old baby girl and said: "Here's my social premium!" This, with the same irrepressible and infectious humor I observed in her back in 2006.
This woman understands the gifts in life. The co-op lent her money to buy more farmland, thus providing an economy of scale whereby she can earn more than just enough food to carry her through tomorrow. Instead, she now has sufficient means to stop worrying about today and look forward to what next week or year can bring for her children. Each child now has two school uniforms and a pair of shoes. For each she wishes a better education than she had, yet the intent to return to the 10-acre farm she has built up for them.
Across from the farm lies an 87-acre nature reserve that she, her father and siblings have set aside for future generations. They allow no hunting, logging or commercial planting here. Native plant diversification is promoted and they believe - from droppings - that jaguars have found refuge, as have mountain lions, native Quetzal birds and many other indigenous fauna.
We took two hours away from coffee to hike to the top of this mountain where each could, in their way, reflect on the progressive improvements coffee has brought to this community.
My sense is that there have been profound changes in the co-op since I visited two years ago. They have moved beyond subsistence and into self-sustenance: sustainability. The women are empowered and have confidence and belief in themselves, knowing they have the ability to better their lives. "
Read more about Shirin’s trip in the Peet’s blog.
Purchase Las Hermanas coffee.
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