BOGOTA, Colombia – Seeking to strengthen ties with the world’s leading coffee producer and exporter, executives of the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC) visited Brazil recently.
Roberto Vélez, CEO of the FNC; Hernando Duque, the FNC Chief Technical Officer; Álvaro Gaitán, director of Cenicafé, and Juan Esteban Orduz, representative of the FNC in North America, made up the delegation.
During the visit, the FNC representatives reiterated their invitation to the first World Coffee Producers Forum, be held on the 10th–12th July in the city of Medellin.
The forum is an effort to foster greater co-responsibility among all actors of the coffee chain in order to achieve a more equitable income distribution.
Mr. Vélez presented recent developments of the Colombian coffee industry before Brazil’s National Coffee Council (CNC). The meeting was held at the headquarters of the producer cooperative Coopercitrus, in the state of Sao Paulo.
The FNC CEO invited the audience to attend the Forum to jointly address common challenges so that the decisions adopted there have a greater impact on the global coffee industry as a whole.
Representatives of Brazil’s main research entities (Embrapa, Epamig, Incaper, Instituto Agronômico de Campinas, Fundación Procafé, P&A Marketing), technicians of coffee cooperatives and the FNC delegation met as part of the technical exchange efforts between the two coffee-producing giants.
Some of the issues addressed included the current state of the coffee industry and coffee research in both countries.
The FNC representatives also visited high-productivity farms in the Alta Mogiana region, and got to know new coffee varieties developed at the “Fazenda Experimental de Franca”, which belongs to the Alta Mogiana Coffee Foundation and Procafé.
In addition, top Brazilian officials expressed their interest in maintaining optimal relations with Colombia and the FNC, as well as in participating in the World Coffee Producers Forum.
A recent visit of FNC representatives to Brazil took place in October with the purpose of having fist-hand understanding of Brazil’s technological developments for coffee harvesting and agronomic tasks.
