Pact Coffee Goes All-In on Women Growers for March
Here’s a number that should bother anyone who cares about coffee: women make up an estimated 70% of the global coffee workforce, yet only 20% of coffee farms are owned or run by women. The people doing most of the picking, sorting, and processing are not the ones making decisions about their own livelihoods.
Pact Coffee, the UK-based specialty roaster, is trying to shift that balance. Throughout March 2026, the company will source 100% of its core coffee range exclusively from women growers and gender-equity groups — an estimated 45 tonnes of coffee from female producers across Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, and Rwanda.
Twenty Women, Four Countries
The initiative isn’t just about numbers. Pact plans to spotlight the work of 20 individual women producers through its subscription service and online store, putting names and faces to the farms behind the beans.
This kind of visibility matters. Women coffee producers face reduced access to land ownership, financing, and agricultural training compared to their male counterparts. Making them visible to consumers — and tying purchasing decisions directly to their work — creates a form of accountability that certification labels alone cannot provide.
The timing coincides with International Women’s Day on March 8, but Pact’s commitment extends beyond a single month. The move is part of the company’s Equal Ground Project, which focuses on building long-term relationships with women-led farms and cooperatives producing specialty-grade coffee.
The Numbers Behind the Policy
Between April 2024 and April 2025, 60% of Pact’s total coffee volume was sourced from women growers or gender-equity groups. Since 2025, the roaster has committed to maintaining a minimum threshold of 50%.
Going to 100% for an entire month is a statement, but it’s built on infrastructure that was already in place. You can’t flip a switch and suddenly source 45 tonnes from women producers unless you’ve already developed those relationships, negotiated those contracts, and confirmed that quality meets your standards.
This is the quiet work that makes headline-grabbing initiatives possible: years of identifying farms, tasting samples, building trust, and agreeing on pricing structures that make it worthwhile for producers to keep growing specialty-grade coffee.
Why This Approach Works
The challenge with “women’s coffee” as a marketing category is that it can sometimes feel like a gimmick — a label slapped on bags to appeal to conscious consumers without changing underlying purchasing practices. Pact’s model works differently because it’s integrated into their core range, not a limited-edition add-on.
When a roaster commits to sourcing the majority of their coffee from women-led operations as a baseline business practice, it creates reliable demand. That predictable volume helps women producers plan their harvests, invest in infrastructure, and negotiate better terms with other buyers.
The record-high coffee prices over the past year have helped too. With arabica futures trading at multi-decade highs throughout 2025, women farmers in countries like Colombia have been able to capture more value from their harvests. But market prices are volatile. Long-term purchasing commitments from roasters like Pact provide stability that commodity markets cannot.
Why This Matters
The gender gap in coffee farming isn’t accidental. It’s the result of legal structures, inheritance practices, and credit systems that have historically favored men. Changing those systems takes time and requires coordinated effort from governments, NGOs, and the private sector.
What roasters can do is use their purchasing power strategically. Every bag of coffee sourced from a women-led farm is a vote for a different kind of industry — one where the people growing the coffee have a say in how it’s sold.
Forty-five tonnes across four countries won’t transform global coffee production. But 45 tonnes, repeated year after year, with other roasters watching and following, adds up to something.