With the renovation of half a million hectares of coffee plantations and various projects aimed at increasing output, the National Federation of Coffee Growers (Fedecafe) announced plans to produce 14 million bags of coffee in 2015.
The announcement was made by Luis Genaro Muñoz Ortega, head of Fedecafe, at the National Coffee Congress after Colombian President Alvaro Uribe asked the coffee growers to increase production to 17 million bags in the medium term.
Responding to the president, who was awarded the Manuel Mejia Order of Merit by Fedecafe, Muñoz said “The number the president has thrown up could be achieved but ours is more reasonable because, of the 888,000 hectares of coffee that there are in the country today, 500,000 have been renovated. If in the next few years we renovate close to the remaining 400,000 hectares the production volume will increase considerably.”
In order to reach Uribe’s target the federation proposes to start planting coffee grain in the 3 million hectares available in the country.
The coffee growers also said that they are confident they will achieve the 2010 goal of 10 million bags. The first six months of 2010 saw 4.041 million bags produced, according to Portofolio.
According to the International Coffee Organization (ICO) there has been an increase in the global consumption of coffee from 105.2 million bags in 2001 to 132 million bags in 2009.
