How Fair Pricing Delivered a 45% Increase for the Women Who Grow Our Peru Organic

We have just received confirmation that our recent pricing negotiation with the Cooperativa Agraria Frontera San Ignacio has resulted in a 45% increase in payments to the women coffee pickers who produce our Peru Organic. That is a huge step forward in our mission to ensure the incredible work undertaken by women in the coffee trade gets recognised and fairly compensated.

Did you know? Women carry out up to 70% of the physical work on coffee farms globally, from planting and harvesting to processing and quality control. Yet they operate only 20 to 30% of the world's coffee farms, and in many producing regions face significant barriers to land ownership, cooperative membership, credit, and fair pay.

Closing that gap, according to the International Coffee Organisation, could unlock an extra 6.5 million bags of coffee per year. That is why supporting the women of the coffee trade is central to how we source. It is what brought us to Las Damas de San Ignacio back in 2022, and it has been a dream partnership since.

Our Peru Organic, Grown by Las Damas de San Ignacio

Our Peru Organic coffee comes from the Cooperativa Agraria Frontera San Ignacio, a long-established cooperative in Northern Peru. Within that cooperative is a group known as Las Damas de San Ignacio (The Ladies of San Ignacio): 90 women producers who grow, process, and quality-check from farm to export, and this is the group we source our Peru Organic from.

The co-op has a great track record, championing gender equity since its founding in 1969, when land was purchased and divided equally among all members, progressive for its time and still a defining feature of the cooperative today. The women of Las Damas are not just pickers. They are farmers, producers, and quality control contributors, involved at every stage of the chain.

The McCabes Commitment

Fair pricing is not a marketing position for us. It is a negotiation we have every year, deliberately and with full awareness of its impact on the ground, even if it affects our margins, we will pay more for the coffee if the share is beneficial to those doing the work. This approach allows us to understand the direct and measurable impact on the livelihoods of the women who produce our Peru Organic.

The initiatives that Cooperativa Agraria Frontera San Ignacio runs for its women members, the infrastructure they have built, and the equity embedded into the cooperative's culture since 1969 are only sustainable when buyers take responsibility for what their purchasing decisions make possible.

So, next time you add Peru Organic to your basket, just know you are part of the story.

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