Morazán is a department located in the eastern part of El Salvador, divided into 26 municipalities
where mainly agricultural activities predominate, including coffee production.
Sonia Ramírez, a 45-year-old woman born in Comunidad las Quebradas, municipality of San Simón, comes from a family with a long coffee-growing tradition. She began harvesting coffee more than 25 years ago, but as in other rural areas of El Salvador, Sonia faced gender challenges to get her farm moving forward, which reduced her and other women coffee growers´ opportunities.
“Previously, women were denied the opportunity to belong to organizations that support coffee farmers in my community. People thought that coffee production was a job exclusively for men. And when women sold their coffee, they were paid lower prices”
Sonia Ramírez | Coffee producer
Morazán, El Salvador
Sonia joined the Maximizing Opportunities in Coffee and Cocoa in the Americas (MOCCA) training in November 2020, through the Salvadoran Coffee Council (CSC) and the Alliance of Women in Coffee of El Salvador (AMCES), motivated by the idea of belonging to an inclusive organization that provides technical assistance, facilitates access to quality planting material and integration into higher value markets for male and female coffee producers.
“MOCCA’s training taught me good agricultural practices which have allowed me to increase coffee yields of my farm by 20%. I have learned pruning and fertilization techniques, as well as soil management, selective harvesting, quality and post-harvest processes”
Sonia Ramírez | Coffee producer
Morazán, El Salvador
In addition to face-to-face training, MOCCA provides a Comprehensive Remote Training Program, in which information on good agronomic practices, videos, manuals and other support resources for coffee producers in El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Peru are shared through virtual platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook.
“My income has increased by 20%! Optimizing the drying process has allowed me to sell honey coffee at better prices. The videos and manuals that MOCCA shares with us, provide information to improve the quality of our coffee”
Sonia Ramírez | Coffee producer
Morazán, El Salvador
Sonia’s goals include improving the productivity of her farm and gaining access to a better lifestyle, as well as encouraging her three daughters to improve academically and continue learning better processes to grow coffee.
Sonia is an example of female empowerment that inspires other female coffee growers in her community. Her enthusiasm and entrepreneurial spirit motivated her to create the Sonia’s Coffee brand and enter the commercial market under the slogan “Coffee produced by women.”
MOCCA partnered with other organizations in El Salvador, through which it will train more than 2,400 coffee producers (40% women) and is working to support the coffee component of the Master Plan to Rescue Agriculture, whose goal is to renew 50,000 coffee Mz.
About the Salvadoran Coffee Council
This alliance strengthens the positioning of Salvadoran coffee in higher value markets by promoting a culture of quality in the production processes to satisfy the demand for gourmet coffees in foreign countries. Parallel to these activities, MOCCA and the CSC are designing mechanisms to facilitate profitable financing and are developing a model plan for the establishment of the Coffee Institute, which will strengthen the technical capacities and knowledge of producers.
Women’s Coffee Alliance of El Salvador
The Alianza de Mujeres en Café de El Salvador (AMCES) is an association of women entrepreneurs, who represent diverse sectors of the coffee industry in El Salvador, and who are dedicated to supporting, promoting, and strengthening the skills and capacities of women involved in coffee-related activities. AMCES is the El Salvador chapter of the International Women’s Coffee Alliance (IWCA), a non-profit organization established under the laws of the State of California (USA), whose mission is “To empower women in the International Coffee Community to achieve a meaningful and sustainable life; and to stimulate the recognition of women’s participation in all segments of the coffee industry”.
