(DANE) confirmed
Luis Genaro Muñoz, the Director of Colombia’s National Federation of Coffee Growers (FNC), told Colombia news agency Semana that the trend is “not an extraordinary phenomenon.”
“The Colombian consumer is used to a cup of coffee that is not produced in our country … one that is of less quality and lower price,” explained Guillermo Trujillo, ex-secretary of the FNC.
Indeed, most of the coffee Colombia imported in 2012 was instant coffee. Trujillo further explaind that the coffee Colombia produces is of a high quality and price that puts it out of reach for most Colombian consumers. A
In February of this year, coffee growers went on strike to protest low global prices and crippling production costs, due in part to the strong peso, which combined to devastate the coffee industry.
MORE: Colombia coffee farmers lift strike, roadblocks: Santos