17i6_Emory_program
NICARAGUA
Opportunity for Female Farmers
Grounds for Empowerment, a program created by the University of Emory’s Goizueta Business School, has announced an initiative to provide more economic opportunities for female coffee growers.
The effort, part of the school’s Social Enterprise @ Goizueta research center, establishes an incubator in which Grounds for Empowerment helps specialty coffee farmers develop business knowledge and networks that they can use to cultivate successful farming businesses. Women farmers who graduate from the program then help take the program to new locations and pass on what they’ve learned.
The program is starting by partnering with Nicaragua’s Vega Coffee. Coffee will be grown, roasted, and shipped from Nicaragua, allowing participating farmers even greater engagement in specialty coffee value chains.
The program’s end goal, according to a statement, is to see female coffee growers earning 40% of the retail price of specialty coffee. That income can be reinvested in the community.
The Social Enterprise @ Goizueta center created the “Grounds for Empowerment” program “to create economic opportunities for female coffee growers who are typically not given opportunities or funding in the specialty coffee market,” the statement said.