Delta The Coffee House Experience launched this Wednesday an exclusive edition – Amboim coffee –, a tribute to the coffee produced by 12 women in Angola, in partnership with the Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Amboim, in the province of Cuanza Sul.
This was the area of Angola where "the Nabeiro group chose women who produce coffee", said Lucinda Cunha, who came to Lisbon for the launch of this initiative.
In total, there are 12 Angolan women, aged between 25 and 69, responsible for their respective coffee farms.
"I'm one of those 12, I'm 69 years old, I've been a widow for two years on the 19th of this month", with a whole life told around coffee, reported Lucinda Cunha, with a proud smile about the journey she has made.
"We, who are widows, have properties, we have to work, we are not going to think that men are the only ones who do the work, no", stressed the president of the association.
"Women also do work, women can also manage a coffee farm," she asserted, adding that among these 12 coffee producers are young women who follow the activity "and who will continue production."
This partnership with Delta "is very good" and the women involved are "very happy", because "after all, there was a multinational company that thought" of them, he highlighted.
Lucinda Cunha said she hopes that the experience of these 12 coffee trees will serve as an example for other Angolan regions.
"It will be very useful, because" you will see "on social media and on television", she considered.
Lucinda has always worked in the café: "I was an employee of INCA, from the colonial period in 1973, I worked for 21 years."
"[In the meantime], they put an end to that, they transferred us to the provincial coffee directorates, then they created small businesses in the coffee sector," she continued.
"When there was resizing, they laid off all the people and each of us who was lucky enough to enter the farm competition managed to do so", including herself, she said.
Regarding how many hours she spends working at the café, Lucinda Cunha emphasized that it is "every day", but she can lose count: "Sometimes we eat in the morning and only eat again at 5 pm".
"[Because], when I'm on the farm, I don't have any hassles and the work is well done", said the president of the Association of Female Entrepreneurs of Amboim.
Now, the goal of these 12 coffee producers is to increase the production area by one hectare.
"[The project] we have is to grow one hectare to see what yield a hectare of well-worked coffee gives," she said, pointing out that the quality of Amboim is robust, which is "sought after all over the world."
In total, "it takes three years to have coffee", that is, in the third year "you can already start to harvest the fruit", she said.
"[This] passion for coffee comes from our family, our grandparents, our parents, we are just following" this heritage, highlighted Lucinda Cunha.
For the entrepreneur and producer, Amboim coffee "is the best".
And she explained why: "It's natural, it doesn't use any products, at least our coffee doesn't use fertilizer, our fertilizer is organic, the grass we cut is what we put on the plants and we also don't have many pests on our coffee trees."
Asked to leave a message to women, especially in Angola, she said: "Go into coffee."
"Coffee is our flag, it is our identification, in our municipality, at least, because the port of Amboim was created because of Gabela coffee, we have to work towards this, we will make an effort and we will succeed", she concluded.
