BOGOTA, Colombia – By the end of October 2013, Colombia has renewed more 2.8 billion coffee trees, the majority of which are rust-resistant and better prepared to cope with climate change.
As a result of this enormous renovation project, more than 394,000 coffee producers have upgraded their plantations and the average age of the plantations dropped by 35 %, from 12.4 years in 2008 to eight years in October 2013.
This important renewal strategy was implemented in response to the negative effects of the difficult wet period caused by the La Niña phenomenon that took place between 2009 and 2012.
During that period, Colombian coffee plantations saw a 30% increase in coffee leaf fungus levels and a significant reduction in solar radiation, which reduced productivity and the volume of harvests.
The plantation renewal strategy, which included a conversion of existing trees with new varieties and a marginal extension of the coffee area, was adopted at this time.
The results of the long-term effort began to bear fruit during this year when many of the young plantations began their production cycles. As a result, more than 10 million bags of coffee were produced over the last 12 months.
It is expected that 10.5 to 11 million bags will be produced this calendar year. Average productivity of individual farms has also risen and the increase is expected to continue. In 2012, 11.1 bags of 60 kilo green coffee were produced per productive hectare.
That number is expected to hit 14.5 bags this year, resulting in a 31% increase in production. It is expected that productivity will continue to rise next year.
“The Colombian coffee sector did its homework and the outlook for production in 2013 is completely different than just a few years ago when we were at the height of the rust epidemic,” said Luis G. Muñoz, CEO of the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC). “Today, we are better prepared than most countries to deal with the coffee leaf rust.”
The positive results could not have been achieved without the help of the more than 1,500 FNC extension service agents, the research and developments made by Cenicafe and various public private partnerships. The
FNC fostered relationships with various governmental, international aid and private entities that contributed both resources and complementary services to the effort.
“We also could not have achieved this reconversion of plantations without the FNC and its ability to leverage resources and orchestrate enormous change to the production structure in Colombia,” said Muñoz.
Plantation Renovation Continues
The renovation process continues today. Between January and October 2013 alone, more than 386 million trees on 70,303 hectares of farmland have been renovated, figures that are comparable to the efforts in all of 2008.
Thanks to the continuous investment in productivity, production during the first 10 months of 2013 significantly exceeded the rates of previous years.
Source: FNC
