"Kilambé is more than just Coffee"

Martha Gonzalez inherited her 6 acre farm from her deceased father; she was 22 at the time—a single mother with 2 small kids.

With the farm, she also inherited debts as well as friendly disputes over the land with her 2 younger brothers. She started working the farm with the agricultural knowledge she had acquired from her late father, and decided to do everything in her power to make this plot of land profitable, for the benefit of herself, her 2 children and her widower mother.

It was very hard to work with very little money or help, but she kept working from sunrise to sundown to get out her first crop. Her first experience in business came at the hands of outside brokers—who came to her farm and offered her money and a working loan for her crop, but without disclosing the high interest rates applied to her loan. That year was very difficult for her, and making ends meet with defaulting on her loan or going under was an extreme challenge. Trying to stay positive through this ordeal, she combined her strong work ethic along with daily prayers—all the while trying to make arrangements with the lenders so she would not lose her farm.

Her persistence and determination eventually paid off, and she met a family that offered her a more productive way of producing her goods and services. Kilambé Coffee—a family-owned, premium coffee company and roaster from Matagalpa, Nicaragua—offered to pay her debt, and also help her with the financing for the new crop. But it was not only that—she was going to be able to sell her entire production with value added, her coffee was going to be in the local and regional supermarkets, roasted and packaged. And she was going to participate in the profits, advancing her financial capability to educate her kids, nurture her elderly mother and work with more help at her farm.

From that time forward, she has employed three (3) additional helping hands throughout the year, to maintain, fertilize, prune, provide shade management and many other tasks coffee needs throughout the year to keep it productive and healthy. She often employs an additional six (6) people during the harvest season. Now she is not worried about her financing—she has no need for it! She does all of her crop financing internally with her own money, which she has learned to manage and expend in a very sensible manner to take care of those around her. She has actually bought the land outright from her 2 brothers, and she is extremely happy doing what she does best—producing the best gourmet coffee from the high mountains from Nicaragua.