Veronica Ponce, President of the International Women’s Coffee Alliance Australia, reveals how her experiences in the industry inspired her to empower other women who work within it.
Coffee has played a role in Veronica Ponce’s daily life since she was a young girl. Growing up with her grandparents in Guatemala, every afternoon the family would gather to watch the country’s famous telenovelas with a cup of black coffee and sweets. In the school holidays, she’d spend time at the family’s coffee farm, helping out aunties and playing with cousins in the coffee fields.
“Like a lot of other Latin Americans, coffee was a big part of my life from an early age. Us children would drink it in the afternoon and would be buzzing by bedtime,” she says.
“As I grew up in the city, I loved visiting the coffee farms. When I was helping out, I thought it was a bit of fun, but it wasn’t until later that I saw the true value of the people who were working there.”
While she didn’t know it at the time, these experiences would be foundational to a career that would see her fall in love with someone who shares her passion for coffee, relocate to the other side of the world, open her own café, and lead the Australian chapter of an organisation that supports the work and growth of women in the international coffee community.
The origin story
Despite her upbringing, Veronica didn’t plan to work in the coffee industry. As part of her final year of school, she had to complete an internship. While looking for a placement, an opportunity at Anacafé, the National Coffee Association of Guatemala, came up.
“They accepted me for a role in the marketing department because I had good grades in English. To complete my course, I had to do 200 hours of work. By the end of it, I’d learnt so much about coffee and loved working with a team who were so passionate about what they did,” she says.
“Once my internship was over, they offered me a role as a marketing assistant. The opportunity enabled me to learn so much, not just about the green beans and growers but also about the international industry. We worked alongside organisations such as the International Coffee Organization and other associations for producing countries.”
As part of her role, Veronica got to visit tradeshows around the world and discover different coffee growing and consuming cultures.
“Our job was to promote Guatemala as an origin. We would organise trips for roasters to come and visit, host presentations to international audiences, and attend events across the world,” she says.
It was this globetrotting role that led her to meet her husband and relocate to Australia – yet it almost didn’t happen.
“I was organising Anacafé’s stand at Melbourne International Coffee Festival 2014, but my boss was supposed to be attending without me. At the last minute, they couldn’t make it and so I took their place. It’s lucky because it was at that tradeshow that I met my husband, who was promoting espresso machines,” she says.
“Although I’d visited a lot of other countries through my job, Melbourne was the first place I fell in love with. It was March, the weather was beautiful, the coffee culture in the city was alive and amazing. You would find these incredible little cafés in laneways which were unassuming on the outside but brewing fantastic coffee.”
Going Down Under
Charmed by the people and the coffee culture, Veronica took the leap and relocated to Wollongong, New South Wales. She says it was then, when trying to find a job in the hospitality industry, that she first recognised some of the unique challenges women face in the industry.
“Because Wollongong didn’t have the same coffee culture as Melbourne when I first relocated, I had to get a job in general hospitality, washing dishes and serving food before being able to work my way up to being a barista,” she says.
“I progressed quickly, until I became a mother. I realised the incompatibility between hospitality and motherhood. I had to sacrifice my job, returning casually when I could. The absence of maternity leave and childcare meant I felt unsupported. It was a challenging time.”
After having her second child, Veronica knew she needed to pivot her path in the industry to fit in with her family and lifestyle. Despite her experience, she says it was very difficult to find a role.
“Although I had worked in the industry for years, I felt I wasn’t given the same consideration as some of the men who had applied for the same role as me. I didn’t exaggerate my experience, and I think that may have put me on the back foot,” she says.
Despite these hurdles and a brief departure from the coffee industry, in 2023 Veronica opened her own café, Park Road Garage, in Bulli, New South Wales. She says being a women business owner is empowering, but also comes with its own challenges.
“I love my work and one of the joys of my role is sharing that with a team who are also passionate about coffee, good hospitality, and creating community,” she says.
“But one of the things I’ve experienced time and again is people assuming I don’t own the business because I’m a woman and because my co-owners are men. I’ll often have suppliers asking to speak to my husband. Through my work with the International Women’s Coffee Alliance (IWCA), I’ve heard from women coffee farmers around the world that they are often referred to as the farmer’s wife, dismissing their role in the industry.”
Women’s alliance
Veronica’s relationship with the IWCA goes back to her time at Anacafé, which shared an office building with the Guatemalan chapter of the organisation. She says working together over the years gave her a good understanding of the origin side of IWCA, but that she didn’t know much about the consuming chapters until she moved to Australia.
“IWCA is a global network of 34 self-governing chapters, all with a shared aim of empowering women in the global industry to achieve meaningful and sustainable lives in their own communities,” she says.
“The Australian IWCA is one of just seven consuming chapters. Our main commitment is to create more visibility for women and marginalised individuals, recognise their work, create awareness, and take action towards a more equitable industry.”
The organisation aims to do this by facilitating platforms for networking, both locally and globally.
“It all starts with networking, creating a safe and inclusive space for sharing knowledge and to share and seek a broader understanding of the challenges women face, such as the gender pay gap, lack of recognition and visibility, gender disparity in leadership, access to childcare, and financial access,” she says.
Veronica believes fostering more opportunities for women will further enrich the Australian coffee industry.
“IWCA creates a space for women in the industry to not only discuss opportunities and challenges but also to actively collaborate on solutions and drive positive change,” she says.
“It’s been wonderful to witness an increase in the number of women taking on managerial and roasting roles over the past few years, however, there are still roles that remain heavily male dominated, such as equipment technicians – I could likely count the number in the women technicians in the country on one hand.”
As well as creating these networking spaces, IWCA focuses its activities to support leadership development programs, assist with strategic partnerships, and amplify market visibility.
“As a volunteer-run chapter, we depend on the active participation of our members and the community to facilitate these platforms. We believe in the power of shared knowledge and action, and it’s this collective commitment that enables us to make our initiatives possible, she says.
“As a coffee industry, we must unite and acknowledge the challenges we face. While other sectors encounter similar issues, we have the power and responsibility to take meaningful action and drive positive change.”
One of the organisation’s current objectives is to get more men to support the cause and get them involved in more conversations and activities.
In January 2025, Veronica travelled to Florence in Italy with fellow board member Melissa Garcia to represent the IWCA Australia chapter among other consuming chapters at the IWCA Italia.
“This event, organised by IWCA Global and IWCA Italy Chapter, successfully brought together leaders from major coffee-consuming countries, including Australia, Italy, Japan, Greece, Spain, South Korea, and the United States, as well as chapters in formation from Argentina, Canada, Germany, and Portugal. It served as a powerful platform for knowledge exchange and strategic dialogue, focusing on advancing women’s leadership and influence within the coffee industry,” she says.
Reflecting on the conference, she feels positive about the future of the Australian coffee industry and the role IWCA plays.
“IWCA’s transformative leadership is shaping a vibrant future for the Australian coffee community. This landmark event ignited a powerful collective movement, not only addressing critical social, political, and environmental challenges faced by women, but also emphasising the vital role of women across all industry roles – from importers and traders to roasters, café owners, and baristas,” she says.
“Through IWCA’s efforts, the Australian coffee industry is set to achieve remarkable growth, marked with inclusivity, innovation and sustainable growth.”
This article appears in the April/May 2025 edition of BeanScene. Subscribe HERE.
