KOKOWAGAYO

Indonesia

A cooperative built to give women a stronger role in coffee. It brings women producers across Gayo together through coffee production, leadership, training, and greater participation in the decisions behind their work.

About KOKOWAGAYO,

Koperasi Kopi Wanita Gayo, is a women-led coffee cooperative in Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia, bringing together 674 women coffee farmers across Bener Meriah and Central Aceh. The cooperative was established in 2014 to give women coffee farmers their own space to participate in the business of coffee, including areas where they had often had limited access to decision-making and leadership within mixed cooperatives.

Coffee production is spread across 15 village collection units, with members managing 708 plots covering approximately 463 hectares. The cooperative works with Arabica varieties including Catimor, Bourbon/Gayo 2, Tim-Tim/Gayo 1, and P88/Gayo 3, grown between 1,350 and 1,600 masl. KOKOWAGAYO is Fairtrade and Ecocert Organic certified and manages coffee from cherry collection and processing through sorting, warehousing, packaging, and export.

But KOKOWAGAYO was built to do more than sell its members' coffee. Over the years, the cooperative has invested in coffee pruning, composting, cupping and quality training, women's leadership, health programs, and processing infrastructure. Some projects are very practical: from providing pulping equipment and drying beds to building village meeting rooms and a cupping laboratory. Together, they give members more tools to participate not only in coffee production, but also in the decisions and skills surrounding it.

What makes KOKOWAGAYO coffee so special?

What makes KOKOWAGAYO particularly interesting is that women's participation is built into the structure of the cooperative itself. Its members are women coffee farmers, while its General Assembly includes 17 delegates and its board is chaired by Rizkani Ahmad, with women also serving as secretary and treasurer. The cooperative was created specifically to give women greater space in coffee organizations and decision-making, rather than treating women's participation as a separate program added later.

That structure is backed by work at farm and processing level. Members receive training in areas including coffee pruning, compost production, cupping, leadership, and occupational health and safety, while the cooperative operates village pulping units and centralized hulling, sorting, packaging, and warehousing in Takengon. The document also shows investments in drying beds for honey and washed coffees and a dedicated cupping laboratory, giving the cooperative infrastructure to work on both production and coffee quality.