Harvesting of the new 2013-14 main crop is now underway across Colombia and early forecasts peg the new crop to reach at least 10 and potentially 11 million bags. While this by all counts represents a healthy recovery from the years with production between 8 and 8.5 million bags, this is still some 2 million bags below the traditional volumes seen in Colombia. The renovation will without a doubt continue to provide for a bigger crop potential, but the ongoing climate change and erratic weather will similarly continue to pose a bigger concern to the Colombian producers as the kind of weather that benefits the main crop normally works against the producers growing their coffee mostly in the mitaca season. Hence even if the new crop at this point looks healthy, it has to be observed that flowering for the mitaca is just only in the final stages and it will be another 3 to 4 months before the world will know with certainty just what promise the 2014 mitaca crop will hold in store. If dry season and low rainfall prevail from mid-December through February when the cherry development goes through the main bean formation stage even a 10 million-bags forecast could quickly become a distant dream. That Colombia’s coffee is here to stay, however, is beyond doubt and farms such as Hacienda Venecia near the coffee town of Manizales and seen here in the picture, goes to show the heart of the tradition in producing some of Colombia’s finest beans. The drive and passion behind the production and quality of every single bean at Venecia, along with the stunningly beautiful landscape, has earned Hacienda Venecia the appraisal of being among SpillingTheBeans’ favorite and most beautiful coffee farms in the world. Coffee lovers and interested travelers alike are encouraged to seek out Venecia if in Colombia and take advantage of the beautiful coffee tours and lodging on the farm’s facilities.
As always, we welcome your comments. Happy coffee drinking
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