(TODAY COLOMBIA) Colombia will increase its coffee production in 2020 up to 20 million sacks, as a result of the peace agreements on the rural economy, said today the Secretary of Treasury, Mauricio Cárdenas.
At the end of a meeting of the Colombian National Committee of Coffee Growers, Cardenas stated that with the peace it is possible that in the year 2020, Colombia reaches this productive level, since it will mean better conditions, more safety and a major support to the rural families and the rural economy.
Also, he said that this coffee volume will be possible because the coffee production is in ascent, although this year there has been affections by the climatic phenomenon El Nino, which provoked droughts and rains scarcity in some regions of the country, and by the truck driver strike that lasted 45 days.
He said that for the current year, they expect between 14,5 and 15 million sacks, in a stage that he considered to be positive with the antecedent by which at the end of last year 14,2 million sacks were produced.
He made sure that the remaining five millions up to 2020 will go out from a greater productivity, of technological progress, more fertilizers and fertilization, but also with the peace that will facilitate the cultivation in new areas that were not producing because of the armed conflict.
Such a challenge will be essential to reinforce the income of approximately 600,000 coffee producing families and the economic growth of the country, the Colombian official stated.
Colombia is the third world coffee producer after Brazil and Vietnam, and the first producer of the Arabic variety, recognized by its softness and high quality.
