Colombia Green Coffee Origin Report 2020
By: Genuine Origin
Tags: Coffee Culture, Coffee Shop, Specialty Coffee, Coffee, Coffee Roasters

Carcafe Ltda, Genuine Origin’s sister company and sourcing partner in Colombia, is nonetheless optimistic about what’s to come from this land of diversity. With headquarters in Bogotá, five dry mills and 14 buying stations spread out along Colombia’s coffee axis and beyond, Carcafe has built relationships with over 24,000 producers since the 1980s.

Since its inception Carcafe has worked to solidify its relationships with farming communities and producers. They have supply chains in every single region in which they operate. This has enabled the company to stay as close to the farms — and the coffee — as possible.

Huila Coffee Farms

Growing More Specialty

Carcafe is built on three main pillars: physical infrastructure in the form of mills and buying stations; quality control with 23 cuppers and 14 Q-graders who can translate market demand to the producers; and the field team with over 70 technical assistants who work hand-in-hand with Colombia’s producers. Every single bag is cupped, whether it’s at a buying station, mill, or at the head office in Bogotá. Carcafe’s ultimate goal is to help farms achieve sustainable business models in the long run by implementing the Volcafe Way with regional local teams that include engineers, cuppers, buyers, and administrative personnel. For Carcafe, it’s not just about buying green coffee beans; it’s also about an exchange with the producers and taking part of the responsibility for the development of quality coffee in Colombia.

Carcafe Ltda cupping lab in Antioquia

Biodiversity in Colombia is mind-blowing; in fact, it’s the second most diverse country in the world. Colombia’s biological richness in each region lends itself to the wide variety of coffee being produced and the result blooms in the complexity found in each cup. A notable volume of the world’s Arabica coffee is harvested and exported every month, and while Colombia is known for some of the finest washed coffees on Earth, new processing methods are being explored as producers develop their understanding of biochemistry in the beans.

A lot of the wet milling in Colombia is done at the farm level and procurement is mostly done in dry parchment. This means that traceability can be narrowed down to the specific producing farm, instead of in community lots, which helps Carcafe identify distinct cup profiles. This in turn impacts quality at the farm level because Carcafe can assist and co-administrate with the field team to help everyone achieve a clean cup.

Country-Wide Production of Sustainable Coffee

It’s impossible to generalize Colombian coffee as a whole because there’s just so much variety coming out of the different regions. Higher temperatures and lower altitudes toward the north produce fuller bodied coffees with less acidity; the central region, where the bulk of the coffee is grown, is softer and sweeter and more often used to balance out blends; meanwhile in the south, high altitude farms bring out the complexity of Colombian coffees.

The rise of Colombia’s coffee industry was boosted by the National Federation of Coffee Growers in Colombia (FNC), which began in 1927 as an export institution that helped raise the image of Colombian coffee beans around the world. The 1958 “Juan Valdez” marketing campaign distinguished 100% Colombian coffee from the traditional South American coffee blends (…before single origin coffee was cool). Now, the FNC also manages the national coffee fund bankrolled by a tax paid by every producer, which goes towards technical assistance and research at the renowned Cenicafé Center. Some notable achievements have been developing varietals with rust resistance and improvements in picking practices. With the FNC’s role as both a coffee institute and an exporter, producers and companies like Carcafe alike work closely with the FNC on their exports.