Coffee Planted by Farc Ex-Soldiers Receives International Award

Coffee beans produced by ex-militants of Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) in the mountains of Miranda and Toribío, in northern Cauca, were awarded the Ernesto Illy International Coffee Award in New York, United States.

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This is Café La Esperanza, exported by the Ascafé company, and belongs to a project supported by the government of Cauca and the Departmental Committee of Coffee Growers.

The Caucasian coffee that now represents Colombia, joins the grains of Rwanda, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, India and Nicaragua that have also received the award.

The award was given at the headquarters of the United Nations to the delegation made up of Gerardo Montenegro of the Coffee Growers Committee and Carlos Arturo López from Ascafé and Governor Oscar Campo, who commented that since May 2018, an agreement was signed between the Committee of Coffee Growers. 

"Hundred thousand kilos of the grain to sell was the goal set for the 14 cooperatives that represent the former FARC to begin to believe in the construction of a country with opportunities," he confirmed.

The product is cultivated by the ex-soldiers that conform the Ecomún cooperative, Nueva Vida and that is part of the Spirit of Peace Plan.

Antonio Pardo in charge of projects of the FARC, expressed his excitement about the award because the coffee is produced by the ex-militants and selected from more than 5,000 samples worldwide.

"It is an award that ratifies the commitment to the peace of the former FARC guerrillas and that confirms that we have conditions to continue advancing as a department," said the spokesman.