Lucía Tapullima Apagueño: A Leader of the Sumac Warmi Women’s Coffee Co-op
Exploradora Coffee is a journey of celebrating women in coffee. Lucía Tapullima Apagueño is a member of Union y Fe Cooperative, and part of the Sumac Warmi group in Cajamarca, Peru. Lucía worked with Sustainable Harvest to share her experience as a member of Sumac Warmi.
Have you been working in coffee all of your life? Please tell us about your farm.
At age 18, Lucia moved to La Coipa for love from San Martín. When she moved, she bought 1 hectare of a coffee farm and she learned about coffee production from her husband’s family, who already made a living from coffee. In San Martin, she used to produce corn, rice, and cocoa.
During her harvest, her days of work are very long. Lucia gets up early to prepare her daughter for school and prepare breakfast for the family. Sometimes she stays at home a little longer to do chores and feed the animals they raise: chickens, guinea pigs, and rabbits. When she finishes with that work, she goes to the farm to pick coffee, and in the afternoon she returns to her house to continue the post-harvest process of washing and drying.
How has being a member of the co-op and the women’s group influenced your life?
During a drop in coffee prices in the market, Lucia spoke with Lorenzo Cruz, Manager of Unión y Fe, and asked him if he was accepting more people to be members of the women’s group, so she enrolled.
Being a member of Sumac Warmi has allowed Lucia to receive support from the cooperative, improve her family income and livelihood, and raise her daughter.
She feels very happy because she has been able to see several advances with the projects they have worked on, such as the infrastructure for improved drying of coffee, the organic garden, and now their coffee seedling nursery.
Lucía dreams of being an integral part of the women’s group as it grows and evolves. Lucia considers herself a coffee professional, and she wants to give her children the tools and opportunities to be professionals as well.
What does coffee mean to you and your family?
For Lucia, it represents being able to improve her home as well as the quality of life she currently has with her family. She hopes to have a better price for the quality of her coffee.
What is the greatest challenge you face in producing coffee?
The cost of labor is the largest expense, but you want to ensure that
you are paying a good wage so that workers are taking care to harvest ripe cherries. If I can receive a better price for my coffee, then it becomes less challenging to account for labor costs.
The rain is also a challenge as it can negatively affect the quality of the coffee if it gets wet during the drying process, or if it is too wet and cold to properly dry.
In your opinion, what unique role do women play in coffee production?
The role of women is more important than that of men because as women we not only work on the farm, but we also support our families and the workers by maintaining our homes and cooking meals.
When there is no harvest, women continue working on the farm by preparing the land, pruning, and harvesting the banana trees, for example, that are on many farms as shade for the coffee. We also often are taking care of small animals.
What is something that you enjoy doing? i.e. dancing, clothes, cooking, hanging out with friends/family, making art, etc.
Lucía likes to play volleyball. On Sunday afternoons, she plays with a group of women and sometimes the winning group plays against men. She also likes to learn how to make crafts. Julia teaches herself and a small group of women how to knit.
Is there anything you want coffee buyers in the US to know about you and the work that the women of Sumac Warmi are doing?
Sumac Warmi is a group of 93 women members of Unión y Fe, we would like to ask buyers for a better price for the quality of the coffee we produce to improve our income.
To learn more about Exploradora Coffee and tasting the coffee produced by Lucía and other women in the coffee world, check out exploradoracoffee.com