Colombia produces coffee that tastes great and has sustainable credentials grown by producers with a long history in farming and heaps of experience. Today, 40% of the coffee the country exports is sold as specialty, and producers receive up to 96% of the FOB price. Taste profiles have always been varied but farmers are so innovative that the concept of regional flavours got old. Every cup is a surprise.
Quality foundations
Colombia is the world’s largest producer of Washed Arabica - and they do it well. Unable to compete in volume with Brazil, the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia (FNC) created a strategy around quality. They defined production and processing standards and rewarded coffee with good physical characteristics with better pricing.
The standards set by the FNC spread because the organisation buy large volumes of coffee and offers a purchase guarantee. Their base price is defined by how much exportable green coffee they can get from 94 kg of parchment, known as the factor de rendimiento. If 94 kg of parchment yields more than 70 kg of Excelso, the farmer is paid above the base price. If it yields less, payment is below the base price.
A leap from physical to sensory standards
These physical quality standards have existed for a long time. For a specialty coffee buyer today, they might not seem all that relevant. But this is one of the reasons why Colombian coffee tastes so good today. Historically, their Washed lots are cleaner, lighter and more acidic than standard Brazilian or Peruvian coffees.
This is also one of the reasons why Colombian producers experiment as much as they do. They already had a good understanding of fermentation for the Washed process. That was a solid foundation to explore other processing methods and differentiate. Especially as more producers started getting export licenses.
Sustainable and always available
Colombia is also a popular origin because it has coffee available all year. Unlike most other countries, it has two dry and two wet seasons. This triggers two periods of flowering and, as a result, two harvests. Most of the country has a main harvest from March to June. That’s responsible for 60% of Colombia’s volume. The remaining 40% is produced from September to December. It’s called a fly crop or mitaca.
The country is also a big producer of certified coffee. Two-thirds of Colombia’s volume has at least one certification, such as 4C, Rainforest Alliance or Fairtrade. The Northern departments, like Santander and Magdalena, also produce a lot of organic shade-grown coffee. It’s a commercial differentiator from the Coffee Axis. And it makes sense because the area gets more sun exposure.
Beyond its environmental credentials, Colombia protects farmers from shocks in the futures market. In 2020, the government and the FNC established a Coffee Price Stabilization Fund to guarantee a minimum floor rate should market prices drop below the cost of production.
The wild version of Panama
Specialty coffee production changed a lot in Colombia in the last five years. Farmers taking baby steps in new processing methods now have super diverse coffees they export themselves. They also experiment with all sorts of varieties. Gesha lost its crown as the “golden seed” and made way for Tabi, Caturra Chiroso, Bourbon Aji, Bourbon Papayo, and others.
Among younger producers, co-fermented and infused coffees are all the rage. These are usually micro-lots. But more farmers are challenging themselves to produce large volumes of Naturals despite the weather, which can be too humid for long periods of sun-drying. The new generation wants to make a name for itself as Panama did - but they’re wilder.
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