The founding of the Federacion Nacional de Cafeteros (FNC) in 1927 stands as a pivotal moment in Colombian coffee history, marking the collective efforts of Colombian coffee growers to advocate for their rights and improve the quality of life for coffee-producing families. Each municipality elects its own representative to voice the concerns of the local community, making the FNC one of the largest agricultural NGOs globally.
The marketing division of the FNC is responsible for promoting not only international consumption of Colombian coffee but also, more recently, domestic consumption of specialty-grade Colombian coffees. The iconic Juan Valdez character, created in the 1950s, epitomizes the FNC’s outward-facing advertising efforts, while the proliferation of Juan Valdez cafes within Colombia further reinforces the organization’s mission to stimulate domestic coffee consumption.
Furthermore, the FNC guarantees a minimum purchase price for all coffee produced in Colombia, providing farmers with a degree of financial security. Farmers have the option to sell their coffee to private buyers or tap into specialty markets, or they can sell their coffee to the FNC and receive a stable, albeit somewhat standardized, price throughout the year, influenced by the global commodities market. While this system aims to alleviate market pressures and ensure steady income for the coffee sector, it faces criticism for potentially discouraging the development of super-specialty and microlots.
The scientific arm of the FNC, Cenicafé, focuses on research, development, dissemination, and support across the country. A comprehensive extension service, employing over 1,500 field workers, engages with farmers on various aspects of coffee farming, including soil management, processing techniques, variety selection, disease prevention and treatment, and other agricultural practices. A tax on all coffee exports funds these initiatives, along with other provisions and protections offered by the FNC, irrespective of a producer’s utilization of FNC services, marketplace, or programs.
Month: May 2024
Colombia – Processing
While Colombia remains focused on the future, prioritizing sustainable practices and the preservation of water and rain-forests in their farming methods, producers also take pride in preserving their cultural heritage. Many traditional farming techniques unique to Colombia are still diligently followed. Historically, producers favored the fully washed processing method, but as global market competition intensifies, experimentation has become more prevalent. For numerous farmers, there has been a shift in emphasis from commodity to specialty coffee.
Smallholder farmers often spread parchment across flat roofs, known as “elvas,” to dry under the sun. At higher altitude farms where colder climates prevail, poly-tunnels and parabolic beds are utilized to shield the drying process from rain and mist, thereby preventing condensation. In Antioquia, drying drawers are employed; these mobile drying screens are positioned beneath houses or storage sheds, easily pulled out or stowed away to shield cherries from fluctuating weather conditions. Once the dried parchment is hulled to remove the yellow layer covering it, the green coffee almond is revealed. Subsequently, the grain undergoes careful selection and classification based on criteria such as size, weight, color, and physical appearance, with defects taken into account during this process.
With coffee cultivated across various regions of Colombia, consumers can anticipate nuanced flavor profiles depending on the varietal, processing method, and geographic origin. Northern Colombian coffee is often associated with deeper, earthier flavors, a rich body, moderate acidity, and classic tasting notes of nuts and chocolate. Central Colombian coffee tends to be well-balanced and fruity with herbal undertones, while southern Colombian coffee typically offers a smooth, highly sweet profile, medium body, pronounced acidity, and citrus notes.
Colombian coffee can only be exported if it meets the current minimum quality standards, which are rigorously evaluated at all Colombian ports by Almacafé. To qualify for export, green coffee must undergo various assessments of sensory quality, granulometry, and humidity in compliance with Colombian regulations.
Colombia grade beans by screen size, Supremo is a Colombian coffee grade referring to screen size of 17-18. Excelso is instead one step below at 15-16 screen but otherwise identical in composition and flavor. Neither of these refer to cup quality (may in fact come from the same farm and even tree), only bean size.
Colombia – Growing and Harvesting
Located near the equator, Colombia boasts a diverse landscape that offers ideal conditions for coffee cultivation, with much of the coffee grown under shade. The country encompasses five primary coffee zones, each comprising nineteen sub-regions, benefiting from a mild climate and elevated altitudes, some surpassing 2,000 meters above sea level. The cooler temperatures at higher elevations result in slower cherry ripening, enhancing acidity, cleanliness, and aroma. Although varietals cultivated here typically yield less, they exhibit greater resilience to pests, making high-altitude coffee highly coveted.
Thanks to Colombia’s expansive coffee-growing regions, harvesting occurs year-round, with the main harvest, known as the “main crop” or principal, spanning from October to February, peaking in November and December. A secondary harvest, known as the “fly crop” or Mitaca, follows approximately six months later. This phenomenon is made possible by the north-to-south orientation of the Cordillera Central, the highest branch of the Colombian Andes, coupled with the moist air from both the Pacific and Caribbean oceans. Despite the short duration of each harvest, the commencement of harvesting varies across regions due to Colombia’s diverse topography and countless micro-climates.
Common varietals cultivated include Castillo, Caturra, Maragogype, Tabi, Typica, Bourbon, and Colombia. The Colombia varietal, developed from Caturra and Timor by Cenicafe (the National Coffee Research Centre established by the FNC), was introduced in 1982 to combat leaf rust disease. This productive and disease-resistant varietal is credited with reviving Colombia’s coffee industry in the mid-1980s. Notable coffee-producing regions include Caldas, Risaralda, and Quindio, collectively referred to as the Coffee Triangle, recognized as UNESCO World Heritage sites, along with Tolima, Antioquia, Santander, and Cauca.
The majority of producers operate small family-owned farms, many of which are affiliated with the Federacion Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia (FNC). On average, a Colombian coffee family produces approximately 1,400 kilograms (about 2,360 pounds) of green coffee per year. Achieving this volume necessitates meticulous cherry selection during the collection process, followed by washing and drying to ensure product quality, with defective beans discarded during this phase.
Colombia – Coffee History
The coffee plant had spread to Colombia by 1790. The oldest written testimony of the presence of coffee in Colombia is attributed to a Jesuit priest, José Gumilla. In his book The Orinoco Illustrated (1730), he registered the presence of coffee in the mission of Saint Teresa of Tabajé, near where the Meta river empties into the Orinoco.
The first coffee crops were planted in the eastern part of the country. In 1808 the first commercial production was registered with 100 green coffee bags (60 kg each) that were exported from the port of Cucuta, near the border with Venezuela. A priest named Francisco Romero is attributed to have been very influential in the propagation of the crop in the northeast region of the country. After hearing the confession of the parishioners of the town of Salazar de la Palmas, he required as penance the cultivation of coffee. Coffee became established in the departments of Santander and North Santander, Cundinamarca, Antioquia, and the historic region of Caldas.
Planted initially in the mountainous northeast, coffee rapidly proliferated throughout Colombia as smallholder family farms recognized its potential as a lucrative source of income. The country’s inaugural coffee export, totaling 2,500 pounds, from the customs office in Cucuta to the United States in 1835, firmly positioned Colombia on the global coffee map. This export trade burgeoned swiftly, propelled by the inauguration of a new railway and the completion of the neighboring Panama Canal.
Despite these early developments, the consolidation of coffee as a Colombian export did not come about until the second half of the 19th century. The great expansion that the world economy underwent at that time allowed Colombian landowners to find attractive opportunities in international markets. Little by little, the United States became the most important consumer of coffee in the world, while Germany and France became the most important markets in Europe. Coffee production was largely monopolized by a handful of major producers operating vast haciendas, where labor was predominantly carried out by peasants, indigenous peoples, and former slaves.
The then large Colombian landowners had already tried to exploit the new opportunities that the expansion of the international markets offered. Between 1850 and 1857 the country experienced a significant increase in tobacco and quinine exports, and thereafter leather and live cattle. These early efforts in the export of agricultural commodities turned out too fragile; they in fact were only reactionary attempts to find the greatest profitability from the high international prices of the time, rather than attempts to create a solid and diversified export platform. The production of these sectors went into a period of decline when the respective bonanza of their international prices terminated, hence a true industrial consolidation was prevented.
With the fall of international prices that registered the transition from the 19th to the 20th century, the profitability of the large estates plummeted. As if this was not enough, the Thousand Days War, which took place during the first years of the new century, also negatively influenced the important landowners, making it impossible for them to maintain their plantations in good conditions; this circumstance summed to the fact that these producers had incurred in large amounts of foreign debt in order to further develop their plantations, which finally ruined them. The coffee estates of Santander and North Santander entered into crisis and the estates of Cundinamarca and Antioquia stalled.
The crisis that affected the large estates brought with it one of the most significant changes of the Colombian coffee industry. Since 1875, the number of small coffee producers had begun to grow in Santander as well as in some regions of Antioquia and in the region referred to as Viejo or Old Caldas. In the first decades of the 20th century a new model to develop coffee exports based on the rural economy had already been consolidated, supported by internal migration and the colonization of new territories in the center and western regions of the country, principally in the departments of Antioquia, Caldas, Valle, and in the northern part of Tolima. Both the expansion of this new coffee model and the crisis that affected the large estates allowed the western regions of Colombia to take the lead in the development of the coffee industry in the country.
This transformation was very favorable for the owners of the small coffee estates that were entering the coffee market. The cultivation of coffee was a very attractive option for local farmers, as it offered the possibility of making permanent and intensive use of the land. Under this productive model of the traditional agriculture, based on the slash and burn method, the land remained unproductive for long periods of time. In contrast, coffee offered the possibility of having an intense agriculture, without major technical requirements and without sacrificing the cultivation of subsistence crops, thus generating the conditions for the expansion of a new coffee culture, dominated by small farms.
Although this new breed of coffee made of country farmers demonstrated a significant capacity to grow at the margin of current international prices, Colombia did not have a relatively important dynamism in the global market of this product. During the period between 1905 and 1935 the coffee industry in Colombia grew dynamically thanks to the vision and long term politics derived from the creation of the Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia (National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia) in 1927.
The union of local farmers and small producers around the Federation permitted them to confront logistical and commercial difficulties that would not have been possible individually. With time and through the research made at Cenicafé, founded in 1938, and the Federation’s agricultural Extension Service, improved cultivation systems. More efficient spatial patterns were developed that permitted the differentiation of the product and supported its quality. Currently the Land of Coffee in Colombia includes all of the mountain ranges and other mountainous regions of the country, and generates income for over 500,000 coffee farming families.
Colombia still produces exclusively Arabica coffee, and though the country suffered setbacks and lower yields from an outbreak of coffee-leaf rust in the early 2010s, production has fairly bounced back thanks to the development and spread of disease-resistant plants, as well as aggressive treatment and preventative techniques. Colombia is the world’s third largest coffee producer with 12% of the world’s production and is known for its production of high-end Arabica coffee. This puts them behind only Brazil and Vietnam, but in contrast with these two, Colombia grows almost exclusively high-end arabica beans.