Women in Tea & Coffee Conference: from a male perspective

On 6 May 2026, I attended and helped run our 2nd Annual Women in Tea and Coffee Conference, held in London at The View.

In my eyes, this was not just a key event for Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, but also an exciting opportunity for me – as a man – to gain insight into the world of tea and coffee, strictly from a woman’s perspective. It was certainly enlightening.

This event was also my first time attending an event that I played a part in hosting, and a byproduct of this was that I was able to interview many of the speakers and attendees on behalf of our magazine (keep an eye on our LinkedIn if you’d like see any of that content). In doing so, I was able to grasp many common sentiments and unique viewpoints from those I had the opportunity to speak with, enriching my experience all the more.

The format of the event entailed masterful talks from first our tea keynote speaker, Zahra Afshar (head of legal, human rights and sustainability) from Ahmad Tea, then afterwards our coffee keynote speaker, Kathrine Löfberg (chair of the board) from Löfbergs, who both highlighted important issues women face across both of their respective industries, as well as how much they value role models and empowering the next generations.

This year’s WiTCC spotlighted the achievements and struggles of women in producing countries, both the farmers and farm workers, which is why we were honoured to have Dr Erika Valério, senior gender and agrifood systems expert with the UN FAO, as our final keynote speaker. As the United Nations General Assembly declared 2026 the International Year of the Woman Farmer, Dr Valério highlighted the UN’s year-long efforts to bring greater attention women working in agrifood across the globe. She shared a plethora of statistics during her presentation – all speaking to the untapped value of working women. A key quotation from her presentation highlighted the visible impact empowerment could have on Tea and Coffee supply chains: “If you were to close the gender gap, the global GDP would rise by 1%. That’s one trillion dollars.”

A slide from Dr Erika Valério’s presentation, demonstrating stats from FAO (2023)

The day also consisted of panel discussions with tea and coffee experts on topics such as Careers in Tea & Coffee and Why are Women Pivotal to the Future of Tea & Coffee, where professionals discussed in more detail how they forged their careers despite the obstacles they faced, and how they would encourage others to follow in their footsteps and further empower women in the industries. Alongside this, both a tea and a coffee workshop – run by Katy Woollard (product specialist, Whittard of Chelsea) and Laura Metcalfe (coffee trainer, Pact Coffee), respectively – allowed attendees to see what it takes to be an expert in their chosen industries, while also offering a sampling of delicious teas and coffees (the latter of which were all grown by women).

A quotation from one of our panellists on the Careers panel really stood out to me during all of this: “It’s never been a challenge that I haven’t been able to overcome, but it was a challenge that men wouldn’t have.” Having it spelled out like this struck me because it is from a lens that I have not used before when thinking about adversity – would the issues that I might face be the same as what someone else might? Someone who is unable to approach problems in the same ways that I can? Compounding this statement was another idea – that for progress to be lasting, “we need to bring men to the table as well.” I think many men in these industries would benefit from having a realisation much like the one I just described.

Speaking more generally about the day, role models in particular were a hot topic at the event. From what I had gathered throughout the day’s discussions, many felt that female role models were hard to come by in our industries which are typically dominated by men, and there seemed to be a consensus among attendees that strong female role models were very desirable, yet difficult to discover – a rather disappointing thing to hear. Despite this, Dr Valério shared her views on the topic with me when I quizzed her about it in our interview, saying “I think today has been inspiring for all these women here, I am inspired by everyone in this room.”

This sentiment highlights what I’d argue to be the most important message to have taken from our event – that we can become the change we want to see. I hope that, at the end of the day, everyone who attended felt the same way that I do about this topic as well.

For more information on our latest conference, make sure to read our news article, where each of the panellists and speakers are rightfully extolled, or to visit our dedicated website women.teaandcoffee.events.

• Matthew Camp, editorial assistant, Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, and can be reached at: [email protected].