Coffee producer country profile: Colombia
Colombia is the world’s third-largest coffee producing country, having produced approximately 14.1 million 60 kg bags, i.e. 846,000 tonnes, for the years 2019, 2020 and 2021.1 Of these, approximately 12.4 million bags, i.e. 744,000 tonnes, were exported. All Colombian production is Arabica. Colombia has succeeded in imposing itself as one of the leaders of quality Arabica coffee, and in organizing Colombian value chains with the aim of producing a coffee whose organoleptic qualities are widely recognized.4 As a result of this strategy, the export price of Colombian coffee has been on average 10% higher than the price of all other milds since the 1990s. In 2021, the country differential
even rose to + 52 US¢/lb, i.e. + 0.97 USD/kg,6 and in September 2022 it soared to + 75 US¢/lb, i.e., 1.56 euros/kg, out of a C-market price of 2.23 USD/lb. This means that in September 2022, the country differential of Colombia was equivalent to approximately a quarter of the Colombian coffee price. Production in Colombia has fluctuated in the last twenty years, with a pronounced dip between 2008 and 2014 due to coffee rust epidemics, among other factors. Since then, yield and production have mostly recovered, but there was another dramatic dip in yields in 2021 (see Figure 1 below), due mainly to climatic conditions but also in the context of a national strike in Colombia in 2021 that delayed exports while also affecting the delivery of fertilizers. Fluctuations in productivity are also due to the fact that in coffee renovations there have been losses of sites that have not been replaced, and this has seriously affected productivity. Where yields have improved, it has been mainly thanks to “replanting of coffee rust resistant varieties, which also boosted crop productivity by reducing the average age of coffee trees and increasing plant density.”
Area of focus: Coffee
Organisation/institution: Solidaridad