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Florent's Colombia trip report
As I sit here typing this report, memories of this wonderful first experience in a coffee producing country swirl in my head. Everyone that participated in February’s delegation to Colombia really seemed to enjoy the 10-day busy trip that allowed us to discover the many different faces of Colombia…
Colombia, land of hospitality!
By Florent Gout,
Green Desk, Coop Coffees
First stop in Bogota, and what a surprise!!!
This huge city (more than 8 million inhabitants) boasts an incredible modernity with an impressive transportation network, two airports, several new buildings (with new companies to house them), commercial malls, and many streets and “green” squares where people can stroll or rest for a cup of coffee in one of the Juan Valdez Cafés which are sprouting all over Bogotá.
The headquarters of the National Federation of Coffee growers (FNC) is located in the heart of the city among bank buildings, restaurants, and cafés – one of the most commercial areas of Bogota. The FNC manages the export process of roughly 30% of Colombia’s coffee production. Coop Coffees works in tandem with the organization in facilitating the export/import process of the coffees we purchase from our Colombian partners. Not even several hours after having landed in Bogotá, our team was preparing for the first meeting with FNC’s special projects manager Madlyn Madrid and several other staff. After having watched a short video that presented the FNC, we visited their highly equipped laboratory. Henry Martinez, who runs the lab and is the organization’s main cupper gave us a complete presentation of the quality control process done by the FNC on the 12,700 containers exported every year (approximately 3,179 million bags). Samples taken before the main lot of coffee is shipped are all processed and cupped in this lab before being shipped to Coop Coffees’ quality control lab in the States. FNC has clearly gone to great lengths to secure the exceptional quality of the coffees they export!
From Bogota to Valle del Cauca, it seemed we didn't just change regions or cities but rather universes!!!
On Sunday February 22nd, we spent the day travelling from Bogota to La Placa – the small village that hosts the headquarters of our producer partner, Fondo Paez. Miguel, the Marketing Committee’s Coordinator made the long trip to welcome us in the nearest city with an airport, Cali. We jumped in a collective van to Cali’s bus terminal, then took a local bus to Santander de Quilichao (1h30). It is in this little city where Fondo Paez rents a warehouse and a small office from the cooperative Cafinorte during harvest season (April to August). Here, they are able to manage the parchment coffee collection, the quality control, and the shipping to the FNC regional warehouse Almacafe in Popayan. In Santander de Quilichao Fondo Paez recently bought a new permanent office equipped with two computers, where Adriana, the coop’s secretary, works…soon she might even have a permanent Internet connection in the office!
After this quick visit, we boarded on the “Red Dragon” (an extended old jeep owned by Adriana’s dad) with Miguel, Adriana and her family for a two-hour drive along the wonderful NASA (organization of indigenous groups) territory, to Fondo Paez’ hosting house. In general, Fondo Paez selects a family in the community to live in this house for a given amount of time in which they host the coop’s various meetings with board and committee members. It’s a type of communal house where members and visitors like us are more than welcome to stay. Benjamin, Flor, and their 6 children run the house this year and gave us a warm welcome during our stay.
Monday Feb 23rd was a day dedicated to meetings…after a brief morning stroll, we started the meeting at 9.00 am and kept going until about 9.00 pm! We covered a variety of topics from the history and organization of the coop to a presentation of the Nasa indigenous community’s organization. This information helped us understand the political context and tensions surrounding Fondo Paez. We also participated in a lively and interactive discussion between the coop’s board members and its producer members about issues surrounding the marketing and prices of the coffee. This discussion ended up taking most of the afternoon to cover and managed to resurface yet again after dinner late in the evening! Yet another example of how important and necessary it is to get the communication flowing – directly and honestly – about the key issues that affect everyone in the long chain of coffee production and importation.
On Tuesday Feb 24th, we visited one of the 28 villages involved in FP’s coffee commercialization project. In Voladero, we met several producer-members and discussed organic production, climate change, prices, and also the different diversification projects they’re engaged in. Due to the expected reduction in 
coffee production due to the unusually cold weather this year, Fondo Paez has explored alternative sources of income. One project involves the production of small handbags using “fique” fibers, which is used for the large sacks in which the coffee grains are exported. A group of women from Voladero have already exported 150 handbags to France! Araceli Vi Tonco, leader of this small group, explained to us that they “would love to become more organized and to produce on a regular basis”, but that they still need support to have a better understanding about the market and potential buyers for their craftwork.
In addition to the handbag project, Fondo Paez is trying to pull together the resources to establish their own in-house roasting capacity. They participated in a local contest where they had to present their project proposal to the mayor of Jambalo, Voladero’s larger municipality. The mayor has granted a roaster to them in order to start the project which will allow them to roast their own processed coffee (currently, they are already marketing processed coffee but having it roasted by contract). They never dreamed of buying their own roaster, because of the financial risk and heavy investment but with a free roaster, the project seems much more feasible. They are undergoing a market/production study to determine what the needed volume of the roaster is and how they could organize distribution. For this project they would love to get 
CoopCoffees’ roasters’ support since roasting coffee is our specialty!!!
Following the visit to Voladero, we returned to La Placa’s hosting house to grab our stuff and head out to Cali… it was already time to depart! But just before we left, they put on a super surprise for my 26th birthday: the local version of “Feliz Cumpleanos”, a birthday cake they picked up far away in Santander de Quilichao, local Champagne, and a little speech from Yuri – it all deeply moved me and gave me an unforgettable experience!
More about Ocamonte Coop and FNC in April...
