Conflict Recovery Through Coffee in Argelia, Colombia

Date

22.01.23

Historically, Argelia has been one of the regions in Colombia most affected by terrorism and the presence of illicit crop trade, leading to local economy distortions and legal crop substitutions.

Origin/location: Colombia -Argelia, Cauca

Timeline: October 2020 –January 2022

Partner orgs: Siruma, USAID (ARD SucursalColombia, USAID’s executing agency)

Budget: $72,500

People: 220 coffee growing families belonging to five coffee associations (ARGCAFFEE, Aromas del Micay, ASOMUCADI, ASOVIDA, and CEMAS)

2022 HIGHLIGHTS

• 220 farming families in 5 associations.
• 22 training sessions carried out with 165 producers trained on GAP, sensory skills and processing.
• 40K+ kg of parchment purchased as specialty coffee.
• 67% increase in total income to producers.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Historically, Argelia has been one of the regions in Colombia most affected by terrorism and the presence of illicit crop trade, leading to local economy distortions and legal crop substitutions. Coffee producers struggle to stay in a legal industry. Falcon Coffees and Siruma will partner with these producer groups on the technical support needed to allow them to increase the quality, volume, and value of their crops, through skill development and improved supply chain access, ultimately providing a valuable and reliable source of non-illicit income.

THE PLAN

In 2021, following three years of building a strong sourcing partnership, Falcon and Siruma embarked on a new joint venture, seeking to support the coffee growers in this project through training, Q-Grader certifications, technical support, and equipment, as well as through coffee price bonuses for higher quality coffees sold through Siruma. Siruma offers a coffee base-price. Falcon can purchase with the condition that higher quality coffee will earn a premium.

THE RESULTS

As of 2021, a coffee quality baseline has been established from more than 110 coffee samples. Farmers have started their post-harvest training programs, and at the end of 2021, 165 farmers have been trained in this. There have been 8 sensory and quality assessment trainings with 149 producers involved. An average rate of 9.5% higher than market value is being paid to producers for coffee delivered. 92 producers so far have contributed to the coffees bought by Siruma/Falcon mainly from ARGCAFFEE). In total we have bought 30MT of coffee from the project as of the end of Oct 2021.

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