The United States Government, through the initiative Providing Opportunities for Women's Economic Rise (POWER), sponsored the women's coffee farmers summit in Costa Rica.

According to the U.S. Embassy, ​​the summit was held at Doka Estate coffee farm and tours, located in Sabanilla District in Alajuela Province. The goal of the meeting was to link representatives of U.S. companies with organizations of women entrepreneurs in Costa Rica. The idea is to create better opportunities to export their products.

The summit was hosted by the U.S. Embassy, POWER initiative and Bean Voyage organization, which includes women coffee tasters and professionals in coffee-based drink preparations (baristas).

 

According to the embassy, ​​the goal of this summit was to create a safe space for women coffee producers and professionals to exchange ideas, share experiences, good practices and challenges of the traditionally male-dominated coffee industry, as well as to promote sustainable relationships of long duration, for the benefit of coffee producers and buyers.

“Costa Rica is world famous for its coffee exports, but women coffee farmers earn less than their male counterparts globally," Jesse Golland of the US Embassy said. "The POWER initiative helps women leaders companies to develop alliances to increase their capabilities and networks to export their products to the United States.”

In 2019, the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs launched the initiative Providing Opportunities for Women's Economic Rise (POWER).

This initiative seeks to connect the U.S. private sector with U.S. overseas missions to help women business leaders in the U.S. and abroad develop partnerships in emerging markets that help them explore new opportunities and implement competitive strategies in key sectors.

According to POWER, they leverage diplomatic resources to promote women in business and work with the private sector to establish professional networks and business environments focused on promoting women's economic empowerment in a global context.

People interested in knowing more about the POWER initiative should visit the U.S. Department of State site.

    

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