colombian coffee

History

From Africa to Colombia

It is believed that the first coffee seeds arrived to the American continent thanks to the French and Dutch. The French introduced them to their colonies (Guyana and Martinique) at the end of the seventeenth century, while the Dutch introduced them to Surinam in 1714. Coffee was first introduced to Colombia in 1723, presumably thanks to Jesuit priests that brought the seeds from Venezuela.

The first information about coffee growing in Colombia dates from 1732. It is said that the first coffee trees were grown in the Jesuit Seminar of Popayán (Cauca) and later in 1741 in the Provinces of Santa Marta and Riohacha. The first commercial plantations date from the end of the eighteen-century in the departments of Santander and Boyaca, and later in the hills surrounding Medellin.

Commercial Cultivation

In the second half of the nineteenth century, a few years after Colombia's independence from Spain, coffee became widely grown. International coffee prices during that time were quite favorable, which contributed to the popularity of this crop. According to several historians, between 1850 and 1880 Colombia's annual coffee production increased from 1,000 bags to 100,000 bags. By 1905 the country was already producing 500,000 bags and by 1930 it had exported over 3 million bags. It is estimated that by 1920 coffee represented 65% of Colombia's total exports by value. The expansion of coffee throughout the country had significant political, economic and social effects.

The spread of coffee throughout the country was highly influenced by the ease of transport from the main producing areas to the ports. In the beginning most of the coffee was grown in Santander, thanks to its closeness to the Venezuelan port of Maracaibo. But as railroads were built in the central part of the country, coffee growing rapidly spread to other regions in the center of the country like Cundinamarca and Antioquia. By 1932 almost 50% of the total coffee production was grown in Caldas and Antioquia. Departments such as Nariño, Huila and Cauca (in the South of the country) represented less than 5% of the total coffee production in 1932, due mainly to the lack of adequate infrastructure. It is estimated that by 1930 Colombia already represented 10% of total world coffee exports.

The Expansion of the 20th Century

In 1927 a group of coffee growers got together in Medellin to create an organization that they named Federacion Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia (the FNC). The main objective of this federation of coffee growers was to improve their member's income. With this objective in mind, and given the International Coffee Pact of 1940, the national government and the FNC created a stabilization fund, which is known as the Fondo Nacional del Café (National Coffee Fund). This Fund is a national account, which has been managed by the FNC since then. The Fund's objectives are threefold: a. To accumulate inventories under the country's commitments under ICO Agreements, helping to reduce the volatility in prices; b. To act as a buyer of last resort for coffee growers, helping them by giving them a minimum and transparent price for their coffee; and c. To help finance public works in coffee growing areas, as well as investment in research and other coffee related areas.

With the help of the FNC and the support from the Government, coffee growing expanded all over the country. By the end of the 1960's there were 1 million productive coffee hectares and production was of just over 8.5 million bags. During the 1960's and 70's the FNC stimulated the cultivation of the Caturra variety, replacing the Typica variety which had been grown for over a century. Unlike Brazil and Central America, Colombian coffee growers had not grown much Bourbon trees, which were more productive than Typica but had smaller beans. Growers favored Typica trees because of their long, bold beans, much appreciated by exporters because it was easier to produce Supremos.

The Caturra variety, first discovered in Brazil in the 1950's, is more productive than Typica, can be grown more densely in coffee plots, and can be grown fully exposed to the sun instead of under shade trees. The cultivation of Caturra thus caused a great technological change, since growing coffee under full sun obliged coffee growers to use more chemical fertilizers. Although at the beginning coffee growers resisted to the new technology and variety, the increase in international coffee prices seen in the 1970's and 80's - thanks to the International Coffee Agreements - pushed growers to produce more coffee. Indeed, thanks to this technological change, by 1990 coffee production had increased to 14 million bags with just under 1 million productive coffee hectares, a 60% increase in productivity.

Today

The end in 1989 of the quota system of the International Coffee Agreement and the impossibility of negotiating a new agreement that included price regulation mechanisms caused a sharp decrease in international coffee prices. Thanks to institutions such as the FNC and the Fondo Nacional del Café, Colombia's coffee growers fared better than most of its counterparts in other countries. But the crisis was so hard that even the FNC had to cut most of its programs, including its price stabilization program.

During most of the 1990's and the first years of this century prices were below the costs of production. This situation obliged a lot of growers to give up on coffee or to decrease their living standards. Coffee growing regions endured high levels of unemployment, which brought insecurity and violence to regions that before were considered the safest and most prosperous in the country. Some coffee growers even resorted to grow illegal crops.