Women are the Backbone of Sumatran Coffee
From planting and maintaining coffee trees to harvesting and selling
The remote Indonesian island of Sumatra produces some of the most unique coffees in the world. With intense flavors and full body, Sumatran coffees are found in some of our most treasured blends. They’re also bold enough to stand on their own.
We wouldn’t be able to bring you incredible coffee from Sumatra without the incredible women who make it all possible. They handle the majority of the planting, growing, harvesting and transportation of coffee.
“[They not only] raise the coffee, but they maintain the coffee trees. They control the quality and harvesting and then selling the coffee. The husbands have a specific role: preparing the land, grow the seed, cutting the grass…that’s it. So the most important things [are] usually done by [a] woman,” said Yuliana DolokSaribu, a farmer training specialist at ECOM North Sumatra Farmer Training Center.
According to Starbucks coffee supplier Sam Filiaci, women are responsible for around 70 to 75 percent of the work on the farm.
Without the [women], the coffee would not be produced probably, and the economic well-being of all the people that sell coffee to Starbucks would not be nearly as beneficial to everybody.
– Sam Filiaci,
Starbucks coffee supplier
