Origin: San Agustin, Huila, Colombia

Producers: Marleny Galindez & Daughters

Farm: La Vega (1 hectare)

Process: Washed

Varieties: Pink Bourbon

Altitude: 1650 - 1700 masl

Importer: Semilla & Monkaaba

Roast: Medium-Light

Notes: Grapefruit, Pomegranate, Creamy, Green Tea

Transparency: We paid Semilla 5.50/lb + shipping and brokerage for a 4 bag lot, their farmgate price was 2,700,000~ colombian pesos ( national average was 1,565,000 at the time) and their FOB price was $4.12/lb.

Marleny Galindez

Marleny exemplifies the tenacity of rural women who are heads of households. With her good humour and energy, she has worked hard to get ahead from a very young age. She is the only woman among her brothers, Segundo, Alejandro, Ruber, and Johan. As the first daughter of Don Hernando Galindez and Aura Cerón, she bore many responsibilities, both as the eldest and as a woman. She helped raise her siblings in their early years, managing household activities, the garden, and small animals alongside her mother while her father worked on the farm.

She completed her primary education at the local school in Sevilla, studying until fifth grade. She attended school part-time in the mornings and returned home in the afternoons to complete household chores. Marleny recalls that at the time, they had no electricity—no television or other appliances except for an alkaline battery-operated radio, which they used sparingly to conserve the battery. During the coffee harvest season, she helped on her parents' farm, picking coffee. After she turned 11, her paternal grandmother began paying her 1,500 pesos ($0.50 CAD) per day for her work. She continued working for a long time with the goal of saving enough to buy clothes and a pair of shoes—a memory that brings her joy even today.

Marleny worked between her home and her grandmother's for more than 10 years. She also had the opportunity to work with the Ortega-Gómez family for a season, where she gained valuable knowledge about coffee farming, family, personal support, and nurtured her desire to produce specialty coffee.

In 2008, her father allowed her to plant 833 caturra trees on a small plot of land, putting into practice the experiences she'd gained on other farms. She chose the caturra variety because her grandmother's farm had both Colombian and caturra coffee, and she had observed its excellent size and production. With the support of her daughter Erika, who has always been by her side, she cleaned the plot, prepared seedbeds, dug holes, and planted the trees. As her small crop grew and produced its first harvest in 2010, she decided to finish high school on Saturdays while continuing to work on neighbouring farms to support herself financially.

n 2018, Marleny asked her father for permission to plant more coffee, and he granted her a plot of land on the mountainside near the Naranjos River. She and Erika once again did all the work themselves to plant the crop. During this time, they faced an unexpected situation: while starting a small, controlled fire to clear the land, it got out of control. Thankfully, no serious damage occurred, with only a few trees on neighbouring farms being burned.

Coincidentally, her father had just started a pink bourbon seedbed and allowed Marleny to use the seedlings for her own plot. She replaced part of her Caturra lot due to rust issues, and by the end of the year, had planted 1,500 trees on the new plot. This took two months of hard work, with Marleny and Erika working in the afternoons after finishing their jobs on other farms, as well as on Saturdays.

Before partnering with Monkaaba, Marleny's coffee was sold locally as wet coffee. In 2022, Erika suggested drying the coffee, having seen her uncles do it to increase profit margins. They began experimenting with drying their coffee in their father's solar dryer, learning as they went, and eventually having parchment coffee to sell.

While having coffee with the Ortega-Gómez family, they heard about the MonKaaba project and were immediately interested. They brought samples to be analyzed, and the results were promising. With the support of the MonKaaba team, they worked toward producing their first micro-lot under their own name.

Marleny is overjoyed to see her hard work paying off with recognition abroad. She is deeply grateful to God, her daughters—especially Erika, who has been her right hand—and all the families and individuals who have supported her along the way.

Monkaaba

Working together, Semilla and Monkaaba provide a rare opportunity for most producers. They run a free to use cupping lab in Huila that allows small producers to taste their own coffees and receive feedback from veteran producers on how to improve quality.

This is extremely contrary to how most other buying systems work, and commodity works, where buyers benefit from coffee producers NOT knowing the quality of their coffee, so they can continue offering low prices to producers, and sell for higher profits.

This project is all about empowering and educating producers to reach micro-lot status, and financial stability through coffee production.

Interested in reading more about Monkaaba? Let me guide you to our lovely friends website to read more! - https://www.semilla.ca/projects/1jq18VvLX0WoyK7hvxeeLM