The last couple years amplified many of the challenges facing the specialty coffee industry, particularly for the people at origin who make coffee possible. Climate change, the pandemic, migration and inflation have contributed to the ever-widening crisis for coffee producers. Smallholder growers like Alexa Marin have worked in coffee their entire lives.
Alexa is a small-scale coffee producer in El Volcán, Dipilto, Nicaragua and a farmer-owner of Pachamama Coffee Cooperative. She is the Gender Commission Coordinator at PRODECOOP Nicaragua where she oversees and advocates for women coffee producers, particularly in regards to women’s health and gender equality. She also coordinates educational workshops to train coffee producers to adapt to climate change. Alexa has been working in coffee for 45 years and owns her family’s farm.
Read her firsthand account of the challenges she and other farmers are facing in Nicaragua. Her story is translated and edited for clarity. A Spanish version is also available in the article.
