BOGOTA, Colombia – Concerned about the repercussions that El Niño is having on the income of Colombian coffee growers, the National Committee met today to discuss strategies to support coffee growers. Different support alternatives will now be evaluated in teams and presented during the next Committee meeting.
The CEO of the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC), representatives of the country’s fifteen Departmental Coffee Grower Committees, the National Planning Director, and the Colombian Ministers of Finance and Public Credit, Agriculture and Rural Development, and Commerce Industry and Tourism comprise the National Committee.
The following are the main support alternatives that will be evaluated by the National Committee:
• Evaluate, with the Department of Social Prosperity,the possibility of granting access to coffee growing families to socioeconomic stabilization programs that satisfy basic needs.
• The Minister of Agriculture will evaluatewith the Banco Agrario and Finagro issues related to credit in the coffee-growing sector. This will include favorable loans for renovation using the zoca procedure.
• Explore the feasibility of launching a program to reactivate coffee production. The program will include crop andzoca renovations to recover coffee plantations affected by El Niño and will be funded by the National Coffee Fund and the Government of Colombia.
The current weather phenomenon has been ranked by multiple agencies as one of history’s three more severe manifestations of El Niño. In light of this, moving towards a profitable and sustainable coffee industry demands collaborative actions and greater joint responsibility from all actors.
The FNC is about to conclude a comprehensive field study based on a statistically significant sample of more than 7 thousand farms throughout all coffee growing departments. The results will contribute to guaranteeing that the support alternatives respond to the specificities of El Niño’s impact on Colombian coffee growing.
