Coffee, the Force of Life

How indigenous communities in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada are turning their coffee into something special

The Kankuamo community living in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada has reached deep into their cosmology to find a name for their specialty coffee: Kuma.

Kuma, meaning the force of life, is the latest gourmet coffee brand to come from this expanding region for high quality beans. The short film below depicts how USAID and the regional government of Cesar have struck a partnership that will help the indigenous communities like the Kankuamo turn their coffee into something special!

Before Cup Profiles

Juan Bautista Montero, an indigenous Kankuamo coffee farmer, lives in the creases of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the department of Cesar, in northern Colombia. Before farming coffee, he concentrated on cacao. Both of these crops do well in the steep, shaded hillsides of the mountains. He and his wife have seven children, who have grown up and moved away, so these days he hires coffee pickers from the nearby village of Chemesquemena to help him with his crops.

Until recently, Bautista knew nothing about the profile of the cup of coffee he was growing. In fact, nobody from his isolated village in this Caribbean mountain chain could really dimension the size of the world’s vibrant gourmet coffee market. It was Bautista’s neighbor who eventually made cupping, coffee notes, and baristas part of the language being spoken around coffee production.

This neighbor, Solon Arías, also a member of the Kankuamo community, lives in the same valley. As a young man, he earned a degree in industrial agriculture and came back to these mountains to see how the Kankuamo could put into practice a sustainable trade that brings value to their products. In 2008, he and a group of 150 coffee growers, known as the Asoprocan farmers’ association, set off on a journey steeped in specialty coffee.

Juan Bautista Montero, an indigenous Kankuamo coffee farmer

“Years back, all the coffee produced by the Kankuamo was sold with no added value. It was just run-of-the-mill coffee,” says Solon Arías.

With the support of Kankuamo indigenous leaders, Arías and his team set up a warehouse in Atánquez, the main town in the community’s territory. Slowly, they added processing equipment, like a mid-sized coffee roaster, and gradually improved the quality of their beans. Only recently did they start talking about cup profiles.

In 2016, they opened a coffee shop in nearby Valledupar called Kuma. Their brand represents the organization’s strategy to go beyond just another Colombian coffee to something with a unique flavor and a story that backs it up.

“Our Kuma coffee has a profile that is low in acidity with an intense, creamy body and characteristics of gourmet coffee that meet the expectations of serious coffee consumers,” explains Arías, delighted to talk about what distinguishes Kuma from other Colombian coffees.

In 2010, Asoprocan coffee growers exported five tons of coffee. Over the next seven years, they sharpened their skills in harvesting and post-harvest processing and increased exports to approximately 100 tons.

In 2017, Asoprocan and other coffee growers received good news: the National Coffee Federation achieved a denomination of origin for coffees grown in the Sierra Nevada, a stamp of approval assuring consumers that 100% of their coffee was grown in the Sierra Nevada. That is when Cesar’s government began taking note of specialty coffee’s potential.

“In Cesar, we have a wealth of culture, from the Kankuamo to the Arhuaco, marketing that allows our growers to differentiate themselves in specialty coffee markets. The consumers in the US do not just want quality­ — they want an experience. Our coffee growers can now offer the Sierra Nevada experience.”

-Carlos Campo, Cesar’s secretary of agriculture.

Cupping and Baristas

In 2017, USAID facilitated a public-private partnership (PPP) that would change the face of gourmet coffee in the department of Cesar and the southern slopes of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta. The partnership, valued at more than US$2.5 million, includes investments from the public sector as well as from the coffee associations. Above all, the PPP puts high-quality coffee on the government’s agenda, and after a denomination of origin was established for the Sierra Nevada, coffee is now more than just a cash crop for the region. Coffee is Cesar’s second-most important agricultural product and a source of livelihood for more than 8,000 families.

In the PPP’s first year, partners created a first-of-its-kind technical working group focused on specialty coffee. In November 2017, the region’s first local coffee cuppers finished requirements for their Pre-Q Grader certificates. The 16 future Q-Graders are taking back their knowledge and skills to their coffee associations. The partnership has also delivered coffee-processing equipment, such as improved coffee dryers, to farmers like Juan Bautista and has given much-needed technical guidance to more than 500 coffee growers in the region.

The lack of critical skills in production and processing have been holding Cesar’s coffees back, but an even larger problem is the ability of coffee associations to market their coffees to a wider audience, attracting high-dollar buyers. More than anything, this partnership gives specialty coffee growers like Asoprocan a smoother path for fulfilling the prerequisites needed to improve their coffees and acquire the knowledge and skills to recognize and put their specialty coffees on the world market.

A Win-Win Strategy

In a multilayered partnership, USAID and Cesar’s departmental government have been crafting an integrated agricultural development strategy that has improved the government’s capacity to plan and implement rural development projects. The strategy brings together the administration’s capacity to formulate projects and leverage new public policy instruments critical to rural development planning.

Through this partnership with USAID, the regional government has put in motion the rehabilitation of all 13 of its small-scale irrigation systems and has begun implementing 22 agricultural investment projects, including the specialty coffee PPP. The strategy has resulted in the mobilization of nearly US$19 million, of which 82% has come from the public sector, including national-level agencies such as the Ministry of Agriculture and the Rural Development Agency.

“If you look at Cesar’s history, the regional government produced just seven agriculture projects between 2002 and 2015, whereas in just three years we have created 22 projects benefitting Cesar farmers,” explains Campo.

Since 2016, USAID has led the facilitation of three PPPs in Cesar, including a honey partnership that established Cesar’s first beekeeping school and created 250 honey producers in places where land-use regulation disallows cattle and crops. USAID also facilitated the first-ever partnership to promote the region’s panela, an unrefined sugar product, with an investment valued at nearly US$1 million.

The fact that all these investments were made in the framework of overarching land policies has set a precedent for rural development in Cesar. The policies — such as the land-use management and irrigation plan — were created with USAID’s leadership and will shape Cesar’s land-use policies for the next 15 years, putting the days of one-off agricultural investments behind for good.

“It has been more than just learning how to structure a winning project. With USAID, we’ve done things that are totally different from traditional development aid. Creating effective public policies helps us to think beyond the short term. Yes, resource mobilization is important, but the most important part is understanding what is ideal for each investment, with regard to soil, water, markets, and many other factors.”

— Carlos Campo, Cesar’s secretary of agriculture.