Manos de Mujer Tolima FT

Asoagrotol Galilea was founded in 2016 by a group of neighbors who had been driven from their lands due to ongoing violent conflict. They came from Villarrica, Cunday, Purificacion, Prado and Dolores, all in Tolima and today, they farm coffee on new land in Prado, Tolima. They achieved their Organic certification in 2019. They are also Fairtrade and RFA/UTZ certified.

The Manos de Mujer project focuses on female growers in the cooperative and differentiates their coffees. The project highlights women producers and helps them access more visibility in the supply chain.

Members have access to agronomists who consult for individual farms and the cooperative on the whole. Agronomists can help advise on Good Agricultural Practices, soil nutrition and more.

In addition to coffee, members cultivate a wide range of crops including livestock, sugarcane, cocoa, bananas, potatoes, onions and other subsistence crops for family consumption. 

Coffee is selectively handpicked by producers and processed on their own farms. Ripe, red cherry is pulped on handpulpers and fermented for 12 to 24 hours. Following fermentation, parchment is washed in clean water and laid to dry. Drying can happen on elvas - raised platforms on the roofs of their homes - or on patios.

Tolima lies deeply nestled in the Central Andes. While the climate is well suited for coffee production, Tolima has remained a less popular region due to the prevalence of armed conflict and drug trafficking. Many farming communities have been caught in the crosshairs of these conflicts.    

More recently, the region has had an opportunity to open up and reduce incidents of violence and drug production or smuggling. Despite its complicated past, Tolima is Colombia’s third-largest coffee-producing department. 

In such conditions, producer organizations play an important role in transforming their communities. Associations or cooperatives can create more jobs and make coffee appear more appealing to young people. Many groups in the region organize courses and training to develop barista skills, quality control and even business management.  

In a region where the job availability outside of coffee farming is very limited, providing new opportunities for work is essential to draw young people away from becoming involved in the endless cycle of violence and criminality. On top of all the community-wide benefits, being part of a cooperative helps producers gain much better access to support on an agronomical, commercial and economic level. 

EP stands for European Preparation. EP beans are Screen 15+ with a low defect tolerance.