
Susana Contreras Sega
Susana is a forestry engineer from Peru. From the beginning of her career she knew that she wanted to dedicate herself to the social side working with rural communities. She now knows that it is because she, thanks to her family history, identifies with them.
She has gained experience in development projects working for local NGOs and traveling through her country: Peru. In 2019 she participated in the Latin American School for the Resilience of Food Systems (ALLSA 2019) and since then she reaffirmed her vocation and understood the need to work for resilient and inclusive food systems that value the role of producers.
Currently, she works as a Sustainable Sourcing Coordinator at Cultivar Coffees, a company that exports specialty green coffee beans from Peru to worldwide. In addition, she belongs to the Young Expert Programmes’ (YEP), a program promoted by the Dutch government, where she has the opportunity to gain experience working in an international environment and learning with and from other young professionals who are also working in sustainability.
At Cultivar Coffees, she is in charge of fundraising, developing projects with coffee farmers, and ensuring the traceability and transparency of their processes. Last year, she had the chance to take a course in Specialty Coffee Cupping and she couldn’t enjoy more this course. She believes that cupping is not only a fun activity but also an important one, since the quality of coffee could be influenced by each link of the value chain. She really enjoys this professional adventure because of the constant learning, traveling, meeting with coffee families, roasters, customers and the coffee itself!
Susana values nature and the wisdom of the people who live in natural areas which is why she has a strong motivation and passion to work to contribute to the rural development of Peru!