BOGOTA, COLOMBIA – The Colombian Coffee Growers Federation ( FNC ) set a new Colombian coffee industry record by exporting more than one million 60-kilo bags of specialty green coffee between January and the second week of October.
The announcement was made by Luis G. Muñoz, FNC’s CEO, during the opening ceremony of the ExpoEspeciales 2013, an event that brings national and international representatives of the international and domestic specialty coffee industry.
According to the FNC, this is the first time more than a million bags of specialty coffee have been exported in a period of less than 10 months. This does not include specialty coffee sales in the growing domestic market to domestic roasters.
This important achievement is the result of a value-added strategy and differentiation led by the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation, which allows an increased value share for specialty coffee producers in the segment.
The exported specialty coffee allows the FNC to provide higher quality premiums to farmers.
The FNC is expecting to export more than 1.2 million bags of Colombian specialty coffees by the end of the year. This will beat its previous record of 1.03 million bags exported in 2011, further demonstrating that its added-value and differentiation strategy is in line with the growing demand for high quality coffees worldwide.
The FNC’s 2013 specialty sales are almost 6 times larger than what the organization exported in 2002 when it launched its new policy on specialty coffees. The FNC defines specialty coffees as those with characteristics that differentiate them from other coffees, for which clients and consumers are willing to pay a premium, which has to e transferred to benefit producers.
The road to increased sales has not been simple. Supply must meet the demands of sophisticated customers who are willing to pay premium prices for coffee. Farmers must adhere to different sustainability practices and protocols in order to both ensure the supply of high quality coffee and achieve higher sales volumes.
More Producers and Higher Profits
Thanks to the FNC’s extension service, the number of farmers producing coffee meeting sustainability protocols has increased significantly from 68,624 in 2008 to 162,873 in September 2013.
More than 44% of Colombia’s total coffee hectares now meet a given sustainability protocol, which is equivalent to 422,390 hectares, a 16% increase from last year.
The benefits of adopting this strategy have been evident for thousands of producers. Price premiums paid to specialty coffee producers have steadily increased, totaling $149 million since the new strategy was launched.
