COP 155 billion to be delivered by the Government to support the coffee sector

• The FNC will continue talking with the most important players in the global industry for producers to receive a better price, allowing them to cover their costs and be profitable.

Bogotá, March 21, 2019 (FNC Press Office) – With the announcement of an additional COP 60 billion (USD 19.4 million), the Colombian Government will provide resources reaching COP 155 billion (USD 50.1 million) to the coffee sector so that producers can better face the coffee price crisis.

The announcement was made by the President of the Republic, Iván Duque, to the CEO of the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC), Roberto Vélez, as a result of the FNC’s efforts, through its Steering Committee, to seek solutions in the face of the sustained fall in coffee prices, which directly affects about 540,000 coffee-growing families in Colombia.

President Duque also promised to undertake international efforts with his counterparts in producer countries, including an eventual summit within the framework of the UN General Assembly in next September.

Upon the President’s announcement, the National Coffee Growers Committee will now have to detail how these resources will be delivered; they could be used to renew coffee plantations and / or for direct price aid programs.

The FNC Steering Committee deeply thanked President Duque and the National Coffee Growers Committee’s Ministers for their commitment and support to the sector, and asked them to continue evaluating alternatives to support coffee growers, especially if the sharp and systematic fall of external and domestic prices is taken into account, as it affects income and stability of Colombian coffee-growing families.

The FNC CEO, for his part, will continue talking with the most important actors in the global industry about the need for producers to receive a better price, allowing them to cover their costs and be profitable, so that the chain as a whole is sustainable. This includes the possibility that the price of washed Arabicas is no longer taken from the NYKC as benchmark.