When women contribute, everyone wins!

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“While having always played a role in coffee production, women have traditionally been excluded from decision-making activities. Chica Bean is turning the table, actively involving women in leadership roles. As women gain more economic decision-making power, nutrition and education improve. Chica Bean also knows that coffee quality improves as women become more involved in the value chain. When women contribute, everyone wins.” 
Taken from Chica Bean’s website. 

Chica Bean is one of the small entrepreneurships that the Farmer-to-Farmer program supports in Guatemala. Located in Sacatepéquez, they not only provide specialty coffee to their clients, but fair prices and better opportunities to their coffee producers. They purchase their coffee from a group of ten women coffee growers who live and farm in the small community of San Antonio Las Flores, Mataquesquintla. 

So far, Chica Bean has received support from three F2F volunteers; Karen Rasmussen, Brian Babcock and Jennifer Yeatts. Thanks to these assignments, Chica Bean has: i) developed a traceability system to identify the farm and lot that the coffee comes from and in this way keep an inventory in their processing plant; ii) improved their financial procedures and production protocols; iii) set up roasting machines and mechanisms to develop roasting curves and obtain high quality coffee; iv) trained a beginner barista; v) adjusted their coffee menu for hot and cold beverages; vi) opened a new coffee shop, and vii) shared knowledge through practical trainings with farmers and roasters. 

The Peace Corps also played an invaluable role in Chica Bean’s growth. Alene Seiler-Martínez who owns and manages Chica Bean with her husband Josué Martinez, was a Peace Corps volunteer in Mataquesquintla between 2008 and 2012. After her service she decided to continue supporting the community through Chica Bean. She credits Peace Corps with helping her develop the flexibility, resourcefulness and perseverance needed to ensure her social enterprise was successful. 


Chica Bean was founded only one and a half years ago, but it has already achieved amazing quality in their coffee and has been in the media not only in Guatemala, but also in Central America. The support of the Farmer-to-Farmer volunteers has been vital to build on Chica Bean’s strengths. Now they can continue growing while generating more employment and better opportunities for women in the Guatemalan agricultural sector. 

“Chica Bean is where the happiness of a great cup of coffee meets the warm-fuzzy feeling of contributing to a better world. When you enjoy a cup of Chica Bean coffee, you’re immersed in a nirvana of complex flavors with an unmistakable strength that can only be matched by that of the women who create it.” 

If you want to support Chica Bean by ordering their coffee, you can do so on their website by paying only $4 for shipping to any address in the US.

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