Primavera Sisterhood is a chocolate-forward coffee from Huehuetenango, Guatemala that celebrates the efforts of women who produce coffee in the region. Made up of coffees grown across five different women-owned farms, this lot from sustainability-focused supplier Primavera Green Coffee exists to further elevate women in the coffee supply chain. In fact– when roasters purchase this coffee, a portion of the price goes to fund workshops that are targeted to women coffee producers, so that they can access key agronomy and post-harvest processing training.
Primavera Sisterhood has a classic, Guatemalan chocolate and nut profile with juicy red apple flavors. Being a milder coffee, it pairs well with milk or cream and performs spectacularly in a French Press or other immersion brewing method. That said, a filter method like automatic drip would make this a perfect daily drinker in the morning.
The following coffee benchmarks have been collected with the help of our importing partners and farmers. Firelight Coffee uses this information to understand and verify the sustainability of each coffee prior to purchase. All information was freely shared by our importing partners and/or the coffee farmer or producer. Sustainability scores were determined by Firelight Coffee based on an evolving set of internal scoring methods and are subject to change. Click to expand each section below the graph for more details.
| Organic Farming | |
| Is the coffee certified organic? | No |
| Has soil analysis been done to determine the optimal fertilizer need? | No |
| Is the appropriate amount of fertilizer used on the farm? | Yes |
| Has the use of most synthetic fertilizer been reduced on the farm? | No |
| Has the amount of herbicides, specifically Glyphosat, and pesticides been reduced to no more than once per year? | Yes |
| Is any water treatment done for the water used to process the coffee? | Some |
| Regenerative Farming | |
| Does the farm have at least 30 shade trees per hectare? | Yes |
| Does the farm have at least 50 shade trees of 3+ types per hectare? | Yes |
| Is there adequate soil coverage on the farm to promote soil protection? | Yes |
| Has irrigation been limited, only being done on top of covered soil? | Yes |
| Has the use of Chloride been limited? | Yes |
| Has the use of Chloride been stopped completely? | Yes |
| Is there increasing biodiversity in plant and animal life on the farm? | Yes |
| Is there succession based biomass present on the farm (e.g. grass cover crops, pioneer trees, climax trees)? | No |
| Are all defensive and fertilizing inputs used natural and regenerative? | No |
| Is waste properly disposed of on the farm? | Yes, coffee pulp is used to fertilize plants. |
| Does the importer have a plan to seek increased environmental efforts at the farm level? | Yes, in general we are working to bring agronomy workshops to more people including specifically to women producers, and environmental topics are covered in these workshops. |
| Environmentally Conscious Transport | |
| How far was this coffee transported via container ship? | 1413 nautical miles |
| How far was this coffee transported via land/truck? | 801 miles from warehouse to Firelight |
| Buying Strategy | |
| Is the coffee price set according to the C-Market? | No. The coffee price is calculated based on quality, as well as an assessment of changes to the cost of production. Every year we analyze producer feedback about the cost of production for the region. If costs are climbing, we take this into account as well as the coffee quality and the size of producer’s land. From there, we set the price, with the goal of ensuring that their work is economically sustainable. If the quality is good, then we give premiums based on the score, since we want to be competitive as a buyer and reward the work that goes into producing high quality coffee. |
| Does the importer pay producers directly or through a cooperative or other third party? | Directly |
| What is the FOB Price? | $2.92 |
| Fair Price for Labor | |
| Is the FOB price in line with the Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide? | Yes |
| Does farmgate (amount paid to the farmer) cover the cost of production? | Primavera has worked over a period of several years to collect cost of production data, and while we have collected some useful information, we are not able to name a definitive cost of production for farmers. So many factors play into the COP, including things that are very hard for producers to calculate and self-report (like machine depreciation, future production increases as a result of pruning, etc). Most of them are small producers with limited education, and most do not keep detailed financial records. Instead of naming a COP figure, we instead have been tracking the changes in costs of goods year on year to understand what changes producers are seeing; see the chart on page 11 of our 2022 Sustainability Report. https://www.primavera.coffee/sustainability-report |
| Does farmgate provide a living wage above cost of production? | See above. |
| Working Conditions | |
| Is the farm fair trade certified? | No |
| Do you have an assessment of the risk of child labour, forced labour and human trafficking in your region? | La Central de Café, our sister exporting company, has clear guidelines about gender equity, and actively seeks to eliminate discrimination and workplace violence/harassment as well as child labor and forced labor in our supply chain. Most producers don’t have the tools to conduct formal independent assessments. |
| Do you have an assessment of the risks of discrimination, workplace violence and harassment, including sexual and gender-based violence in your region? | See above. |
| Do you have policies and procedures in place for identifying, mitigating, preventing, monitoring and remediating child labour, forced labour, human trafficking, discrimination and workplace violence and harassment, including sexual and gender-based violence? | See above. Also, Primavera and our sister exporting company, La Central de Café, encourage good working conditions. All labor and wage laws are carefully followed as well as workplace safety regulations. We have permanent employees in each department, as well as seasonal workers in our warehouse and dry mill; most of these seasonal workers return to us year after year because of fair labor practices and a positive working environment. |
| Philanthropy | |
| Does the importer have a plan to partner with the producer to increase gender equity in this growing region? | Yes. Primavera, as a woman-owned business, hopes to continue pushing for progress in gender equity and advocating for the voices of women in the supply chain. We actively seek partnerships with women, including female producer groups, as we work toward this goal. Further, we have more information about our gender equity initiatives in the Social Sustainability section of our annual report. Each year, we seek to add women producers to our network and we have focused some of our agricultural training workshops to be specifically targeted to women producers starting with the 2024 harvest season. We have also strategically added partners such as women’s cooperatives to our network. |
| Does the importer have a plan to partner with the producer to increase local education opportunities? | Some of the proceeds from the Primavera Sisterhood Blend go to funding workshops targeted toward women producers specifically. These workshops are part of our general education programming for coffee producers, focusing on areas such as farm management, costs of production, and post-harvest processing techniques. |
| Does the importer have a plan to partner with the producer to alleviate extreme poverty in the region? | Primavera does have some initiatives to stimulate development and alleviate poverty in Huehuetenango, see page 27 of our 2022 Sustainability Report. Projects are designed to support economic sustainability as well as focus on environmental and social sustainability! |
| Does the importer have a plan to partner with the producer to increase access to sustainable energy? | There is no sustainable energy infrastructure in Huehuetenango that would be accessible to producers at this time. However, our dry mill in central Guatemala does run partially on solar power! |
| Does the importer have a plan to partner with the producer to build, maintain, or increase access to local infrastructure? | We are currently working on improving our current traceability systems in Guatemala to comply with the EU’s Deforestation Regulations. This involves placing points on a map to represent each farm, and then verifying that the area has not been deforested to accommodate the farming of coffee. We hope to better measure the risk of deforestation as we work to implement these new standards. |
| Does the importer have a plan to partner with the producer to increase access to clean water and/or nutritious food? | No, our programs have focused on other sustainability-related needs. |
| Does the importer have a plan to partner with the producer to support the local economy through job creation &/or infrastructure maintenance? | Coffee growers sometimes hire their neighbors or family members to work on the farm as needed, which can provide helpful income for local families – these are seasonal positions for a few days during the harvest, typically, rather than traditional jobs. |
From our exporting partner, Primavera Green Coffee:
Primavera Sisterhood is a twist on our popular regional blend from Huehuetenango. Gender equity is a longstanding challenge for the coffee industry; women coffee growers have less access to land, credit, training, and basic education even as women make key contributions to plant care, harvest, and processing coffee. Research has shown that when women are empowered to make decisions, including financial decisions about their coffee farms, families and community are more successful and their needs are better met.
We purchase 84 and 85 point coffees from smallholder farmers in Huehuetenango each year to blend into a balanced, classic profile for coffee roasters around the world – each unique lot has full
transparency and is traceable to the farm level. For the Sisterhood blend, we used these same guidelines but selected only coffees produced by women coffee farmers. Extra funds for this coffee go to putting on workshops for women producers.
Women producers who contributed to this lot:
Trinidad Lucia Mendoza, Josefa Evelia Hernandez, Maria Cardona, Iris Liseth Cano Merida, Celia Andrea de Leon
