Country Profile Colombia

"With a reduction of guerilla activities in various coffee areas in Colombia, the DE Foundation with various partners is helping coffee producers to reestablish their farms and communities."

Coffee in Colombia

Between 2001 and 2007, coffee farmers in various areas of Colombia were forced to abandon their properties to escape from violence. In their absence, coffee plantations deteriorated and the productive and social infrastructure was destroyed. While in ‘exile’, many farmers endured extreme poverty. Now, as public order has been improving in the last few years, many coffee growers and their families would like to return to their homes and fields. However, they need help to restore production.

Challenges

The Serranía del Perijá area has great potential for producing high quality coffee. As coffee is the major source of income in this area, improving its production can have a very beneficial impact for the people in this region who are generally very poor. In order to boost production, social structures and cohesion must first be redeveloped, and physical infrastructure such as roads, housing, schools and water supply must be rebuild.  In addition, the quality of the coffee that is produced should also be improved by creating infrastructure for coffee drying. Access to the certified coffee market can be enabled by helping farmers to comply with the Utz Certified code. 

Role of DE foundation

2009-2012

In collaboration with the National Federation of Colombian Coffee Growers (FNC), the DE Foundation began a project in de Serranía de Perijá, one of the areas affected by violence. The FNC is a farmers’ organization that has existed for more than 80 years. It has a good reputation and strong capacity for executing projects with smallholder farmers.

At the beginning of the project, the DE foundation collaborated mainly with the FNC, while at a later stage, the Dutch ministry of foreign affairs joined with additional funding. Collaboration has been established with governmental organizations at national, provincial and municipal level. Apart from providing farmers with technical assistance to produce coffee in a sustainable manner, the partners participate in community development, which involves the training of 700 families to help them achieve food security, as well as housing improvement, reconstruction of social infrastructure and better management of forests and environment.

Help is given to these 700 families in order to recuperate or restore their coffee plantations, and to create optimal conditions for high quality coffee that can compete at a national and international level. Farmers receive training about coffee drying and drying infrastructure is being created. Their coffee is being sold to a local cooperative that recently re-started their activity in the region. Renovation of houses is ongoing, including water storage for human and agricultural consumption. Social structures slowly are being improved, which will also help to reduce violence against women. To make sure the coffee farmers and their families have enough to eat, families are encouraged and assisted to grow fruit and vegetables and breed cattle, while conservation and recovery of natural forests will be carried out on 700 hectare. Another 175 hectares will provide firewood. Furthermore, the first steps are taken to assist farmers that wish to become Utz certified achieve that goal.

Ambitions

As a result of the strong presence of the project and the quality of the assistance provided, farmers have developed trust in the project and now are for the first time since years looking with hopes at the future. So far, the results of the Serrania del Perija project are very encouraging, and the project  is viewed as an example for other areas in Columbia where displaced farmers are returning to their farms.

The FNC therefore has the ambition of implementing similar projects in other areas.