The Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC) set a new Colombian coffee industry record by exporting more than one million 60-kilo bags of specialty green coffee between January 2013 and the second week of October.
This is the first time more than a million bags of specialty coffee have been exported in a period of less than 10 months, according to the FNC. This does not include specialty coffee sales in the growing domestic market to domestic roasters.
These results are due to a value-added strategy and differentiation led by the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation, which allows an increased value share for specialty coffee producers in the segment. The exported specialty coffee allows the FNC to provide higher quality premiums to farmers.
The FNC is expecting to export more than 1.2 million bags of Colombian specialty coffees by the end of the year. This will beat its previous record of 1.03 million bags exported in 2011, further demonstrating that its added-value and differentiation strategy is in line with the growing demand for high quality coffees worldwide.
The FNC's 2013 specialty sales are almost 6 times larger than what the organization exported in 2002 when it launched its new policy on specialty coffees. The FNC defines specialty coffees as those with characteristics that differentiate them from other coffees, for which clients and consumers are willing to pay a premium, which has to be transferred to benefit producers.
