Today we’d like to introduce you to Marta Campos-Mace. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Coffee and Sustainability
Marta Campos-Mace is an independent business consultant, coffee professional, entrepreneur, altruist, and experienced traveler. Her passion for coffee, culture, arts, and tourism have inspired her involvement in social sustainability projects pursuant to coffee and hospitality in emerging markets.
Marta’s devotion to making a difference led her to attain the coveted Authorized Specialty Coffee Association Trainer -“AST,” designation. Marta trains aspiring coffee professionals in English or Spanish and in cities, worldwide, where the educational program is allowed by the SCA. Her courses involve: Introduction to Coffee, Green Coffee Trade, Roasting, Sensory and Barista Skills, Brewing, and Sustainability. She also acquired a Coffee Science Certification from the Coffee Chemistry Corporation.
In order to enhance her quality management and production expertise, Marta obtained Q-Processing 1&2 and Q-Grader certifications from the Coffee Quality Institute. These are the most rigorous designations in the coffee world. Marta also has the distinction being selected as a judge for 2014 and 2017 in Honduran National Barista Competition.
Marta’s mission as a business advisor and professional in sustainability is to move producers up the coffee value chain. In this same vein, Fidelia Consulting, LLC, Marta’s consultant firm, created the “Yagual Coffee” initiative. This label exemplifies Marta’s commitment to developing a brand to serve as an effective icon for agricultural commodity trade and commerce, empowering women in emerging economies, to escalate the income ladder and maximize their business acumen.
Marta’s international cooperation development experience is highlighted by her multi-year engagement as the Advisor and Entrepreneurship Consultant for the Capucas Coffee Cooperative subaward contract with Texas A&M’s Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture, under the USAID-funded Coffee Resilient Project in Central America. This partnership involved training services oriented to small Central American coffee farmers, primary located in the challenging environment of the “Northern Triangle,” to expand awareness and transfer skills for income diversification, specialty coffee “SCA” courses, and sustainability.
Currently, Marta’s projects involve: education coordination for AMUCAFE, Honduras subsidiary of the International Women in Coffee Alliance. Designing a professional certificate on Business and Coffee Science; architecture of a sustainable business model exchange, the latter two parts of the Yagual Coffee initiative. Marta is also working on writing a book about coffee.
Native from Valle de Ángeles, Honduras; Marta attended the only public school in her town of what was to become the art-craft center of the country. Her mother (now deceased) was a cultural mentor, hospitality small business, and politically active in environmental consciousness and gender equity leader since the late 70’s and early 80’s. This legacy inspired Marta to address social challenges with entrepreneurship and self-determination.
Marta is bilingual in Spanish and English. Her academic coursework involves Business Management and Chemical Engineering at the National University of Honduras, UNAH. At the turn of the 21st century and her immigration to the United States of America, Marta served 2 academic semesters as Lecturer in the Faculty of Communication of Business Spanish and Satellite Communication Assistant for the Master of International Management LATAM program at Thunderbird School of Global Management, an Arizona State University knowledge enterprise.
Marta, her husband and descendants reside in Houston, Texas.
As of June 2022.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The main challenge has been the drastic change and cultural adaptation that is required to immigrate from childhood and early adult home of Central America to the United States.
During this transition, surmounting the initial process of family separation in the pursuit of professional objectives and legal responsibility of immigration processes, was a life-changing obstacle, resulting in leaving two teenage children with their grandmother for a period of three years. During this time, Marta’s mother and grandmother passed away, and due to the legal immigration process, Marta was not able to attend the funeral.
– While pursuing certifications and business events, I am frequently asked: which company do you work for? This common question leads me to believe that most of my peers value “corporatism” over “entrepreneurship” and self-employment. Furthermore, I sense that the coffee industry has several biases: one, which is not unique to this sector, is the female discrimination and two, is the age discrimination. Having to overcome the gender opportunity gap, I constantly feel that I have to work harder to prove to a younger and tech-savvy generation of coffee professionals and consumers what value a 50+ years old woman can provide. My entire career development and skills instruction has been financed by my husband y my personal financial sacrifice. Whilst this funding vehicle limits my advancement, not owning my knowledge to any specific corporate sponsor is quite liberating –
We’ve been impressed with Yagual Coffee, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
The “Yagual Coffee” initiative is a label concept that exemplifies my commitment to developing a brand to serve as an effective icon for agricultural commodity trade and commerce, empowering women in emerging economies, to escalate the income ladder and maximize their business acumen.
The term yagual is a rag used by individuals, mostly women, to help them balance and carry a commodity load on their heads. This is the most rudimentary form of an individual farmer taking a product from “farm to market.” My mission to “technify” and expand the yagual practice to enhance a farmer’s ability to trade products in the 21st century.
What matters most to you?
1) Uplifting education and awareness in rural communities around the world.
2) Fairness and sustainability for coffee farmers, worldwide. Coffee is a global commodity that for decades has maintained the same or similar profit margins for producers for decades. While the appeal and consumer interest in coffee is now global, mainstream and boutique, most farmers are not able to capitalize on this boom, other than from the sale of the commodity. When we realize that farmer is the initial risk-taker of the value chain, yet is often the most overlooked and often the least remunerated, I take issue with this imbalance and seek to level the playing field.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.yagual.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camposmace/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/camposmace
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/camposmace
Image Credits
Credits to: Marta Campos-Mace
