As Colombia's major coffee-producing regions come under gang attacks amid worsening public safety, the supply chain for high-quality beans is reportedly under serious threat.
According to Bloomberg on the 27th (local time), armed robberies and looting crimes have surged recently in Nariño and Cauca in the southwestern Andes, and coffee producers said their farm operations themselves are being shaken. The industry explained that the regions are key origins where global companies such as Starbucks and Nestlé have sourced premium beans, and thanks to altitude and volcanic soil they produce highly acidic coffee that has been highly regarded worldwide.
Germán Bahamón, head of the National Federation of Coffee Growers, said, "All coffee-growing regions in Colombia are experiencing the disaster of looting and theft." Comparing the current situation to coffee leaf rust, a blight that destroys coffee farms, Bahamón noted that crime is shaking farmers' livelihoods from the roots. He said some exporters are transporting coffee to the Pacific port of Buenaventura in convoys with police escorts, adding that deteriorating security has already spread to the logistics stage.
Colombia's coffee industry has enjoyed a boom on the back of the biggest harvest in decades and rising international prices, but experts said that as gang attacks increase, production expense and risk have jumped. Producer groups said some farms stopped nighttime picking to avoid robbers, and in some cases harvested coffee cherries were left on farms after failing to be transported in time. The industry warned this is highly likely to lead to quality deterioration and reduced output.
As the backdrop to the worsening security, President Gustavo Petro's "total peace" policy was cited as failing to deliver results. The Petro administration has pursued negotiations with guerrillas and drug cartels, but local political commentators said there has been no substantial disarmament and, rather, the groups have expanded their areas of activity. Security experts assessed that as military pressure eased, criminal organizations have expanded kidnappings, looting, and terror, seeking to effectively take control of rural areas.
Polling organizations said surveys show public-safety anxiety has emerged as a greater national concern than the economy and health care. With the presidential election next year approaching, local media reported that leading candidates are uniformly putting forward hard-line public-safety policies and presenting the restoration of rural security as the top priority. The criticism continues because the coffee industry is a national backbone industry on which the livelihoods of millions are in consolidation, making recovery impossible without securing safety.
The National Federation of Coffee Growers said it asked the government to strengthen public safety in rural areas, increase troop levels, and protect logistics routes. Industry officials said international coffee-buying corporations are assessing supply-chain risks and holding emergency consultations with local groups. Experts emphasized, "For Colombian coffee to maintain its global reputation, safety at the production sites must be secured first."