May 19, 2011
Best Coffee Named in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta
Coffee Competition Promotes Higher Incomes, Licit Livelihoods for Smallholder Farmers
Elias Enrique Eguisa Sanjuán’s entry won the honor of “Best Coffee of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta” at a competition organized by the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia on May 6.
The competition, supported by ACDI/VOCA’s USAID Specialty Coffee Program and Colombia’s Presidential Agency for Social Action and International Cooperation (Acción Social), included more than 50 producers of high-quality Arabica coffees from Colombia’s departments of Guajira, Magdalena and Cesar.
"This initiative not only shows the important capability of the Federation and departmental committees to support thousands of families, but our ability to partner with national and international coffee growers in Colombia," says Luis Genaro Muñoz Ortega, the National Federation’s general manager.
Coffee Offers Economic Opportunities for Farmers
Coffee is behind only petroleum as the world’s most commonly traded commodity. The event’s goal is to promote the high-caliber coffees from the Sierra Nevada both nationally and internationally in order to support licit livelihoods for vulnerable coffee-growing communities.
The event’s top 10 coffees will be sold as special micro-lots on the international market with support from the Federation. These micro-lots are attractive to global buyers and are expected to yield premium prices for the growers.
"The coastal coffee is one of the most diverse and has a high potential, so we have been reminding the rest of the country that the Coast is also coffee," says Ortega.
Sanjuán is a smallholder farmer from the township of San Pedro de la Sierra who submitted coffee beans he grew, pulped, washed and dried on his farm. He received as his grand prize a motorcycle. Second place went to Gallardo Libis Bohorquez of the municipality of Pueblo Bello, who won a cash prize.
Region Known for High-Caliber Coffee
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (SNSM) is well-known for producing high-quality coffees. It also accounts for 71 percent of organic coffee production in Colombia.
To date ACDI/VOCA’s USAID Specialty Coffee Program has benefited approximately 1,600 farming families in the SNSM, including vulnerable and indigenous populations. ACDI/VOCA works with local partners to stimulate and strengthen the coffee value chain to benefit these subgroups in particular by
- increasing productivity through farm renovation and proper maintenance
- improving farmers’ abilities to process the coffee, including drying and storing, to sell for higher prices
- improving farmers’ business management skills and strengthening local coffee associations
- increasing farmers’ abilities to conduct physical and sensory analysis of their beans in order to provide high-quality coffee
- increasing the availability of local capital funding to expand markets
- training farmers in the requirements to be certified organic or fair trade to earn higher incomes
Learn more about ACDI/VOCA’s work in Colombia.
Pictured at top left: Winners of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta coffee competition receive awards from the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia.
