The Colombian coffee story cannot be told without giving credit to Colombia’s National Federation of Coffee Growers, or Fedecafe. Since its early foundation in 1927 the Federation has worked under the slogan to “guarantee the wellbeing of Colombian coffee growers” and has during the years provided impressive pillars of social development across the coffee landscape. While a number of Fedecafe’s marketing policies still stir controversy in the local industry, it’s hard to deny that many of Colombia’s smaller producers throughout the years have been able to obtain better farm-gate prices for their coffee when selling to Fedecafe-owned mills, than when selling to private buyers. In the early 1980s the Federation started developing what would become the world-famous Juan Valdez coffee brand and since its official launch in 1983 the image of the happy Colombian coffee farmer with his smiling mule has made Colombia’s coffee a symbol of good quality coffee. An estimated 50 percent of Colombia’s coffee is sold as “specialty coffee” and sold at premiums above the prices in international Arabica futures market.
My name is Maja and I’m a Danish born woman crazy beyond passionate about everything coffee. I have written about all aspects of coffee for over 25 years from 60 coffee producing countries across the world.
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