COLOMBIA
Illycaffè is taking steps to improve coffee production in the department of Cauca, Colombia, an area where former rebel forces live.
The Italian coffee company signed an agreement in May with Ascafe’, an association of small coffee growers, and ETCR (Territorial Spaces for Training and Reintegration). In the agreement, illycaffè will work with the groups to improve the quality and productivity of coffee farmers in Cauca.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, commonly known as FARC, waged a 52-year insurgency against the Colombian government before agreeing in 2016 to lay down their guns. More than 600 former FARC fighters now living in the Cauca region can benefit from the coffee initiative.
In the agreement, illycaffè will share its expertise on best farming practices and will purchase coffee lots produced by the former FARC members provided the product meets illycaffè’s quality standards.
“We want to tangibly contribute to the complex peace process, working alongside the people and the organizations that are joining forces to make this happen quickly,” illycaffè chairman Andrea Illy said. “We are implementing in Colombia and in the Cauca the same principles that we apply in other countries from which we buy our green coffee, and that are based on three pillars: working hands in hands with the producers – either individually or in affiliation with others; sharing with them the knowledge to allow them to achieve higher standards of production; and remunerating them in such a way that makes their production sustainable.”