Colombia-Meza

Story

Maria hails from a family of coffee producers in Nariño, the southern coast of Colombia, and that has sparked her continued interest in coffee cultivation. At the age of 14, she inherited a small piece of land of 2 hectares from her father and began planting coffee trees.

More recently, Maria’s farm was renovated and new trees were planted including the Geisha varietal, amongst others. With the renovation finished, she is now working on improving the coffee processing for better quality.
Work on the farm is laborious and days start as early as 5:30am. At the farm, they only pick mature cherries and leave them to rest for 24 hours before depulping. The coffee is allowed to ferment for 42 hours and then washed, but only once because they wish to allow some mucilage to remain on the parchment. The resulting parchment is dried in the sun on raised beds from 7am to 11am, and then again from 2pm to 4pm, moving the coffee every hour. It takes 15 days to dry the coffee.

Maria is a fantastic example of women forging their success in the coffee production world, an industry often dominated by men. She hopes her success can inspire other women to do the same.

For a Sustainable Future

• Economic: Value Creation