March 24, 2008
Board Travels to Colombia
ACDI/VOCA board members Mort Neufville, Deborah Atwood and Bruce Johnson traveled March 10-14 to Colombia to gain familiarity with our new USAID-funded project, the Coffee Alliance for the Expansion of Specialty Coffees (CAFES). They were accompanied by President Carl Leonard, senior VP for the region Charles Cox and VP for communication Perry Letson.
This project is a follow-on to our successful 2002-2007 Specialty Coffee Program, also funded by USAID, which exceeded all its targets in raising the quality profile of Colombian specialty coffee (coffee graded at above 80 on the standard 100-point scale). A USAID official told the board members that the previous project achieved “some of the best accomplishments seen under the entire USAID portfolio.” In contrast to the old project, the new one focuses on the higher segment of the coffee value chain.
Besides meeting with ACDI/VOCA and USAID staff, including USAID Mission Director Liliana Ayalde, board members visited federal and local government officials, cooperative staff, other partners and growers who are all part of this complex, collaborative effort, which extends even to U.S. and European roasters.
They participated in the signing of a new agreement with SENA, a Colombian government organization oriented to capacity building that trains 5 million Colombians per year. SENA will extend a package of good agricultural practices under CAFES.
The board traveled south to the coffee growing department of Cauca, where coffee was first planted in 1537, to learn how the project works from the ground up and why it matters. As to the latter, Luis Alfonso Hoyos Aristizábal of the presidential office Acción Social said succinctly, “Coffee generates income, and it generates peace.” Over 3 million Colombians depend on coffee production for a living, and after recent steady gains in stability and economic growth the country is in position to capitalize on improved coffee quality.
One Cauca producer, Juan Jojoa, proudly gave a tour of his 2-hectare farm. He pedaled his bicycle-powered depulping machine for the group and illustrated the progress he has made by pointing to his front yard, where he used to dry coffee, and then to the clean, modern, covered racks he now uses. He expressed gratitude for ACDI/VOCA’s assistance saying, “Someone who gets no help at all is a no one.”
Board members participated in a “cupping,” a rigorous lab-based tasting process designed to evaluate and compare various coffees. The best grades of Colombian specialty coffee can fetch 10, 20 or more times the price of commodity grade coffee. Such a lucrative crop, which is grown sustainably by smallholder farmers, provides an attractive alternative to the scourge of coca and can revive the local economy in areas previously suppressed by political conflict and drug-driven thuggery.
Besides providing direct economic benefit, the project builds social capital. For example, the cooperatives visited by the board also promote women’s equity, childhood education and family health. One co-op has a mobile low-cost dental clinic that is towed by the fertilizer delivery truck. It has also built a dorm to enable children from remote farms to attend school in town.
Under the 3-year, $5.8 million CAFES project, ACDI/VOCA assists at key points along the value chain, particularly in strengthening marketing institutions and supporting the growers and their local cooperatives and other organizations. The project will consolidate Colombia’s gains in the specialty coffee market and tap the unmet market demand for high-return organic, Fair Trade and specialty Colombian coffee.
Board members were impressed by previous achievements as well as the scope and ambition of the new project. They also were struck by the commitment of our Colombian partners and the widespread high regard for ACDI/VOCA. Robert Castrillon, a Cauca-based official of the national coffee federation, said, “We value your visit and the important work you have done towards benefiting coffee growers. With groups like ACDI/VOCA we can be sure of continued progress toward a better way of life.”
In 2006 ACDI/VOCA’s board began a program of taking annual trips overseas to inspect and advise projects. Previous outings have been to Serbia and Cape Verde.