Letter from Colombia
I always think that the visitors to the Interference Channel are intelligent, sophisticated and interested in new or radical ideas, so I must assume that you also drink coffee, as that has been the drink of intellectuals and rebels from the time the first coffee houses were established in Europe in the 17th Century. It was over coffee in Venice, Vienna, London, Amsterdam and Paris that revolutions were planned, stock exchanges founded, ventures proposed, beliefs questioned and philosophies expounded.
So, with coffee gaining worldwide popularity, and coffee bars, brands and boutiques becoming ever more specialized and sophisticated, I thought you might be interested in learning a bit about the story behind that expensive espresso, cappuccino or café latte that provides such enjoyable punctuation throughout the day.
My partner and I grow coffee in the Caldas region of Colombia. Our estate is built on rich volcanic soil and climbs from 1400 to 1800 metres spread over hillsides dotted with plantain, banana and indigenous trees and flora, including a number of “guaduales”; plantations of guadua, the giant bamboo which is endemic to the region.At this altitude in the tropics, the temperature remains constantly between 18° to 22°C, accompanied by ample rainfall … perfect conditions for growing fine Arabica coffee. Which is what we grow.
Whenever you see a packet of ‘specialist’ coffee it will claim the coffee is ‘hand picked’. I saw an article on Colombian coffee in the Sydney Morning Herald that suggested that Colombian coffee was picked by hand because the terrain was too steep for mechanical pickers. Not quite. Yes, the steep terrain prohibits mechanised picking, but all the coffee in Colombia is picked by hand as it is Arabica, and unlike the more ordinary Robusta, Arabica coffee cherries mature at different times so pickers have to pick only the ripe red coffee cherries, leaving the green to ripen. It is like picking botrytis-affected grapes.
We process and dry the coffee on the estate, and sell it to the Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia (FNCC), the national Co-Operative of coffee growers, which has around 550,000 members. The FNCC was set up to promote the production and exportation of coffee, and to represent us, protect our interests, and be a helpful, trustworthy and fair partner for growers, the majority of whom are single family landholders with limited education and even less resources.
The price the FNCC pays us for our coffee fluctuates in line with the international commodity exchanges. Coffee is the second biggest traded commodity after oil, and you all know how the price of fuel at the pump usually reflects (eventually) the movements in the commodity exchanges. This, however, never happens with coffee. I can almost guarantee that none of you are paying less for your coffee than you were three years ago. The only figures I have are from Australia, regarding the average price of a takeaway cappuccino in Sydney, which over the five years to 2013 rose from $A2.95 to $A3.46.
Not too bad, you are thinking, until you realize that the commodity price of a pound of coffee dropped from $US3.00 in 2011 to around just $US1.00 in 2013.
Earlier this year, because of problems with the crops in Brazil and central America, the price rose 34% and within two weeks, it was announced that retail prices would have to rise, even though they had never stopped rising over the years that commodity prices were sinking so low.
Someone was making a great deal of money while we cafeteros were going broke.
We appealed to the Colombian government for help, but the present government is not interested in the welfare of farmers and the viability of the agricultural sector. Their focus is on encouraging multinationals and inward investment, with a heavy weighting toward mining and oil and gas.
So we held two major Paros (strikes/stoppages/blockades) in 2013: the Paro Cafetero in February, and the Paro Agrario in August. In the latter, we were joined by the other major agricultural sectors, all of whom are suffering from the bilateral Free Trade Agreement with the US, through which we are being flooded with cheap, industrially farmed products from the US, while small scale family farmed Colombian produce is prevented from going the other way through the imposition of regulatory and organizational conditions.
The government said we were whiners and beggars, and that they were already doing a lot to help us. All we knew was that a quarter of Colombia’s population was losing its livelihood, and that the government could do more.
For example, at a major meeting of coffee farmers, leading up to the Paro Agrario, we were talking to a cafetero who has a brother in Nariño in the extreme south of Colombia. He goes over the border to Ecuador to buy fertilizer. Why? Because the same bag of fertilizer that costs COP 62,000 (Colombian pesos) this side of the border, costs 20,000 the other side. And a bag of cement produced by the same multinational costs 25,000 pesos in Colombia and 7,200 in neighbouring countries. Again, someone is making a lot of money, and it sure isn’t the farmers.
To bring the first Paro to an end, the government promised a small subsidy on top of the commodity price (we wanted a guaranteed price floor), help with fertilizer, extension of existing bank loans, and reorganization of the FNCC / Co-Op. Except for the subsidy, none of the promises were honoured, hence the second Paro. Government promises were re-made, fulfillment was guaranteed, and the second Paro came to an end. As of June 2014, the government’s promises remain unfulfilled. Their excuse? Some of them take time to arrange.
So what was the FNCC doing all this time?
The FNCC’s stated Mission is: Assuring the welfare of the Colombian coffee grower.
The FNCC has 2400 employees, all of whom receive a pension when they retire. We don’t.
The FNCC takes 1% of everything we earn selling coffee to them and keep it for us … but we have to die or get out of the business to get it.
The CEO of the FNCC, a government appointee, reportedly enjoyed a monthly salary of 90 million Colombian Pesos (around $US45,000) in 2013, while coffee farmers were struggling, or unable, to pay workers, repay debts, support their families or educate their children.
The price the FNCC pays us for our coffee does not always reflect the price movements on the international commodity exchange. They set their own price in line with their ‘strategic requirements’. Their requirements are obviously more important than those of the members it exists to benefit.
The big problem for us cafeteros is that when the coffee price is good, we are all happy and we don’t mind that the Co-Op and the government and the middlemen are taking their big cut, because we can still cover our costs and make a little profit to get us through the flat times.
It is when the coffee prices are disastrous, and the Co-Op, the government and middlemen still expect (and do take) the same big cut and leave us going broke, that we start to get very upset. We have made enough money for them over the decades, so you might think they would help us now. After all, without our coffee there will be no business at all.
And there is something else.
It might not come as a surprise that 65% of voters in the coffee growing region voted against the re-election of President Santos at the recent elections. The urban and coastal votes got him back in for four more years. His entire campaign was based on delivering peace, and bringing an end to war, through the ongoing talks in Havana between the FARC guerillas and the Colombian government. The talks have been going since 2012.
But what does he mean by peace? ‘War’ is not restricted to professional guerillas fighting professional soldiers in the far reaches of the country. The crisis in agriculture has resulted in very many unemployed, and ever higher levels of crime. The radio news recently reported some 200 shops or stores in Bogotá being robbed every day … including a flagship supermarket in Rosales, one of Bogotá’s most exclusive neighbourhoods.
Here in the countryside, theft is increasing alarmingly, as are threats of extortion by opportunistic gangs of criminals. The police seem either unable or unwilling to do anything about it, which is leading to private individuals hiring their own ‘muscle’ to protect their assets and their lives.
Sounds familiar? This is how the autodefensas / paramilitaries (AUC) started.
If the government ignores the plight of the farmers and just concentrates on an interminable conversation in Havana we could find ourselves returning to the bad old days that everyone hoped were a thing of the past.
We are very proud of the coffee we grow, the quality that we achieve, the delight that it delivers, and the employment and social advancement that it provides to so many individuals and families in Colombia. We would like to continue doing it for many years to come, but at the moment do not know if that is going to be possible.
So when you next enjoy a cup of Colombia’s finest, spare a thought for those of us who grow it. Sadly, it will be a lot more than the Colombian government appears to be doing.♦
*Barry Max Wills