Alliance Coffee

Calle 8, #4-33
Centro, Planadas, Tolima
Colombia

Phone: (+57) 318-560-5823

asopep_planadas@hotmail.com

70
Years

1947 - 2017

www.coopscanada.coop 70
Years

www.cdfcanada.coop
@CDFCanada @CCAIntl
www.impact.coop 1947 - 2017
 Our Story
ALLIANCE COFFEE, a coffee association located
in the municipality of Planadas, Tolima, is a leading
producer of coffee in the region, the third largest in
Colombia, and the countrys leading specialty coffee
producer. The Association covers an area of 14,458
hectares and produces 9,184 tons of coffee, according
to estimates from the Tolima governments Ministry of
Agricultural Development.
The organization arose out of the producers need to
market their products at a fair price. Traditional trading
failed to secure prices that compensated production
costs given the many difficulties faced in cultivating
and processing their products, including the regions
geography mountainous slopes of more than 35
degrees and the poor state of tertiary roads, which
increased the cost of transporting products.
In addition to the above, the States presence was
very weak and farmers in the area were stigmatized
as guerrillas since the mountains around Planadas
had given birth to the FARC guerrilla movement and
traditionally this group had been very active in the area.
Coffee growers therefore decided to organize, aware that
despite the armed conflict and state neglect the area was
producing good quality coffee capable of reaching new
markets.
Members of the Association established basic principles
in keeping with their vision of the territory, which have
since then guided the organization: transparency in
conservation, strengthening generational transmission, transfer of
knowledge, recovery of ancestral farming practices, and conservation
of the soil and watershed.
The organization has no hierarchy; it is instead an integrated
network of producers in which young people play a vital role: 30%
of associated producers are between 20 and 30 years of age. The
members have maintained traditional coffee-growing practices, such
as growing in the shade, preserving native varieties of coffee, and
cultivating them through traditional practices that include nurseries,
fertilizers, pruning, harvesting only mature beans, processing with
equipment developed by members and tailored to each farm, artisanal
shade drying, and preserving the local streams.
Our Production
ALLIANCE COFFEE and its 342 fair trade-certified members cover
a total area of 1,210 hectares, 855 of which are reserved for coffee.
373 hectares have achieved organic certification (National Organic
Program-USA, Europe, Japan, and Korea) and are distributed among
42 of the municipalitys 108 villages. The Association produces
1,767,000 kilos of coffee a year (including 607,000 kilos with organic
certification) sold directly to 23 clients in Europe, North America,
Asia and Oceania, and other domestic clients.