In celebration of Starbucks 20^th anniversary in Peru, Starbucks Latin America and Caribbean is proud to launch Starbucks® Perú Mujeres de Junín, a new whole-bean coffee grown by more than 130 women coffee farmers from the Caniari producer association, in the Junín province in the Amazon rainforest east of Lima.

Ahead of the coffee debut, 44 Green Apron partners (employees) from Starbucks Peru – managed by licensed retail operator Delosi – visited the association in June. They met and learned from the farmers, connected with the coffee at its origin and announced the donation of 40 drying beds and a coffee quality lab, made possible through the Todos Somos Café (We Are All Coffee) campaign.

Started in 2019, the campaign aims to positively impact the lives of coffee-growing communities and strengthen the connection between Starbucks Peru partners, customers and coffee farmers. 

The relationship with Junín builds on Starbucks previous community investments in Peru, including a Global Community Impact grant awarded in 2022 to Peruvian nonprofit Transforma by The Starbucks Foundation – to support the development of early childhood education programs in coffee-growing communities – and the Mujeres CAFÉ initiative, The Starbucks Foundation’s partnership with international nonprofit TechnoServe to develop leadership and communications skills in 1,300 women coffee farmers.

Hear directly from four women who are helping to bring Starbucks® Perú Mujeres de Junín to life, a bean-to-cup journey, a tribute to women: a farmer who grows the coffee, the business leader who manages the Starbucks Peru brand and two Green Apron partners who returned from their visit to Junín with a newfound perspective on the coffee they’re selling in their stores – and the people behind it.

Seferina Cáceres, Junín coffee farmer

Coffee is a heritage from my parents. My parents were already dedicated to coffee production and were engaged in livestock farming. But I went more to coffee cultivation because it is more profitable. Most of the people here in San Martín de Pangoa, –most of them grow coffee.

I am a single mother; I have two kids (15 and 9 years old). I have two stable employees and there are also people who come and harvest during the growing season. Here, there are several women, several mothers, like me, who are single, who have their own coffee, who dedicate themselves to coffee, and who have improved thanks to coffee. It has a great social impact.

Since I started working with the Caniari producer association in 2019, they started to offer technicians, they came to visit and support me: when is the right time to sow, when to fertilize, how to renovate (old trees), how to wash and dry coffee, offering consistent and fair prices.

Coffee for me is a way out of many economic problems. Thanks to coffee, many things can be done. Of course, at the beginning everything is difficult, everything has its lows. But the reward at the end, the satisfaction of having achieved, of having been able to do your own things, your own business, your own chacra (farm), that is something great, something fulfilling. It will be difficult for anyone to bring you down from where you are.

I would like to own a big house for my children. So that the day I am gone, they will be safe and well. And for my children, to leave them with a good social status. And that’s what coffee allows me to do: to pay for that. To my children, I want to tell them that I love them with all my life. They have been my strength, my engine. All this is for them, and everything that is going to be done, everything that is going to be built is for them, for their future.

I made up my mind at the age of 25 to go out on my own. I, a woman with only a high school diploma, I have been able to get ahead. You have to stand firm in what you want for your life, for your future.

Cristel Delgado, Starbucks Peru brand manager

In Latin America, in agriculture, there are not the same opportunities for women. The great majority of women are only dedicated to taking care of the home, cooking and caring for the children. Having the possibility from the brand to make this tribute to women allows us to put them in a very relevant place – where we talk about a society that transmits equity, where women can play a leading role in the economy of their families. This coffee pays tribute to these women.

I value very much Seferina – her strength, her integrity, her joy. She told all those stories with great joy. That’s what I take away, how can there be so much strength in one being? I put the Coffee Master apron on her. I told her that for us she is a Coffee Master, and I showed her the Perú Mujeres de Junín bag and told her that in that bag were her coffee beans, and that this is in gratitude for the role she plays as a woman who provides for her family.

I grew up in a home with a very caring, honest, but also very empathetic and very hospitable mom and dad. They taught me love for others, love for neighbors, towards our communities. Being a leader to more than  1,700 partners makes me feel a big responsibility. As a personal goal within my leadership, we aim to build a better society and help our partners become better individuals – more empathetic, more human, more humble – capable of sharing and being that small change in our country. This trip helped me look at my purpose again and say that I am on the right path, I am in the right organization.

Our country has an urgent need for education, empathy, respect for others and solidarity. In our country, we have faced many crises. From our role, we can make a difference and do things differently. Sometimes we think that this is the task of bigger people or companies, but the change starts with us.

This experience visiting Junín has been one of the most beautiful. We have learned many things. I think the first one is how we have connected with the beginning of the coffee. Getting to know the coffee growers, understanding their needs, identifying the hard work that they do, but also the responsibility and respect that they have for their crops makes us look at coffee today with a different perspective, from our role as partners, identifying the responsibility that we should have. We have come home with a sense of responsibility because we are part of that chain.

We feel very proud to be able to reach 20 years in Peru with a coffee that will represent us, that will tell the stories of a community that has needs, that has dreams, to which we can continue to commit ourselves.

Allison Díaz del Olmo, Starbucks Peru barista

I have been with Starbucks Peru for four years. I feel that after this experience, when I go back to my store and brew a coffee, I will see the coffee farmer in every cup I am going to brew. We have learned, both from their work and from their life too. Every time I make a cup of coffee I’m going to think of them…They are going to be my motivation.

I always thought that the coffee trees grew on flat ground, but that is not the case. There are farms much higher up (in the mountains). I had the opportunity to go up to the top (to a coffee farm). I imagine that the farmers, who do it every day, have a lot of willpower to climb up to the last tree.

My mom, she’s a single mother. The producer we went to the farm with (Seferina) she’s a single mother too. I’ve seen how she’s raised her children, working harder, teaching them. She reminds me a lot of my mother because my mother had me alone and my mother worked day and night.

Jhoselyn Trinidad, Starbucks Peru district manager

I’m a district manager, in charge of 10 stores. I started as a barista, then became a shift supervisor assistant store manager, a store manager and then I moved to the marketing department for a year. But I came back to operations. 

Seeing how much effort the women coffee farmers put into picking coffee cherries, carrying sacks of coffee beans, selling them, and the steps involved in the process, it truly gives you a different perspective and makes you value what we have even more… It makes me see and reaffirm that Peruvians are entrepreneurs and always give their best for their families. I identify with that because I’m a mother, a student and a worker. They work hard for their families, and I do the same.

Many times, we enjoy drinking our coffee without fully realizing the immense work that goes into it. My commitment to the coffee farmers is to continue providing the best experience through a cup of coffee and to ensure that we continue to have this growth that benefits everyone.

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