Colombia
Colombian officials want to increase coffee production by 30% and they are looking to a strife-torn southern region of the country for more beans.
Extreme weather and low prices around the world have depressed the nation’s green bean production. Despite those realities, the Colombia Coffee Growers Federation and the Colombian government continue to push for an annual goal of 18 million bags, according to a Reuters report. To accomplish this, they promote productivity. But they also must find new lands to cultivate coffee trees. The answer may be found, they say, in southern provinces like Meta, Putumayo and Caqueta where coffee that has grown for decades has been ignored.
Sometimes, farmers there have turned to profitable coca, the raw source of cocaine. Some officials claim the shift was made under pressure from armed groups. A five-decade civil conflict with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) also hampered coffee production.
With a 2016 peace accord with FRAC holding, the government and federation hope to restore coffee production in these provinces.
“A lot of new growth that could come from Colombia is in the areas that have been cut off, in former FARC areas,” Jacob Elster, chief executive of Crop to Crop Coffee Importers told Reuters. “It’s not unreasonable that with better agricultural practices and planting varietals with higher yields, you could almost get” to the production goal.
The government and national coffee fund have pledged more than $15 million in renovation aid for farmers.