About Finca San Miguel

"Project the values of women who fight within a field led by men, transmit the effort of each woman from the land to the consumer's table, since there is not a single process where the contribution of women is not present."

Gema Villagra’s belief in women power makes herself known to the world with her innovative products, despite the adverse economic situations that are currently being experienced in her country. Nicaragua, historically a coffee growing country, was thriving to be a wealthy country through economic development. However, unfortunately the past history did not enforce its economic growth. Since 2018, a sociopolitical problem has begun which has forced Nicaraguans to be more strategic when doing business. Gema was forced to work on their own resources and use it more flexibly.

“Be strong, you never know who you inspire”

In 2019 Gema suffered a serious road accident which led her to rediscover her own purpose in life. Gema is the daughter of a coffee grower Engineer Juan Pablo Villagra (a person who has a degree in agriculture). He owns Farm San Miguel, located between Matagalpa and Jinotega. She saw a great economic opportunity to pursue her own goal and support her father at the same time by buying coffee with a fair price.

“What if you stop thinking about it so much and just try it?”

Since she was little, she watched her father on the farm and how he carried out the entire coffee process. However, it was not until she was older in 2019 that she became more interested in coffee growing from both the business and production side. Throughout these last years, she has kept educating herself more on the subject of farm management. At last, she had the chance to take charge of some part of the farm and manage to move it forward. Beyond all, it is an honor to preserve the heritage of her parents. She found her way of producing coffee when she realized the great opportunities that come with good coffee and, above all, when she found an innovative and different way of marketing it in Nicaragua.

“When there is desire, everything is possible”

To get ahead despite her difficulties, she decided to design a different form of packaging. It was there that she came up with Caté, which is a coffee packed in bags similar to tea bags. Likewise, motivational phrases are written behind the labels to convey joy, tranquility and, above all, customer satisfaction. The focus of this idea is aimed at young adults between 24 and 45 years old, independent workers and office workers. These people usually do not have time to wait for a pourover coffee but also do not want to continue spending on daily expenses such as cafeteria coffees. Caté made coffee more accessible to these people

"Never say never”

It is difficult for her to find suitable points of sale for the product and market her product with a reduced budget. As a result, sometimes she does not have enough coffee production to meet the demand. Despite all the hardships, Gema persists to produce her own coffee. She never gives up to continue buying coffee from her father at a fair price so that it can be used as reinvestment in the farm and thus produce more efficiently.

"You don't shine by turning off the light of others"

Her greatest motivation is her desire to support her family and empower people around her.. She designed her packaging to include words of inspiration on the side so that she not only gives her clients the best cup of coffee, but also a better way to start their days.