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Juan Valdez® Roberto said you cannot talk about Colombian coffee
Procafecol is the operator of Juan Valdez® Café, the as a single one: when you talk about Colombian coffee, there
Colombian coffee growers’ coffee shop chain and brand. are many different coffees. You can differentiate coffee, since
Procafecol also develops relevant, added-value coffee products they are from different latitudes and altitudes. Like coffees from
and brings Colombian coffee all over the world. The brand has Guatemala, Panama or Costa Rica, they are different when you
been deployed across a number of channels, specialty stores, cup them, since they are from different latitudes. In Colombia,
shopping centers, institutional channels and e-commerce from north to south, latitude also affects flavor and cup profile.
portals which support Colombian growers. On the other hand, the varietal is also very important.
“We have developed and grown coffee varietals that
resist rust. In the last 5 years, we have done that. Now, in Colom-
bia over 70% of coffee plantations are rust-resistant. In addition,
we also have Geisha, Caturra or Bourbon varieties. We also try
different processing methods. We have been studying the effects
of fermentation on the cup profile.” Roberto added, “We have to
remember that our goal is to find new flavors for our customers.”

The Future Trend
“Although specialty coffees are interesting and becom-
ing more popular, we believe that green coffee is still the main
product in the market.” He admits that people is focusing more
and more on special flavors. And he is also very pleased to see
that. But we must be prudent about that. We must keep reason.
Specialty coffee is still a very tiny part in the market. Perhaps
it is the future trend. It brings us more interesting flavors and
Roberto Vélez coffee stories. But we have to wait and see.
FNC in China and Asia
FNC CEO, RobertoVélez We can see the FNC in different international coffee
Luckily, we had the chance to interview Roberto Vélez, stages as sponsor. Roberto said that the FNC always tries to push
the current CEO of the FNC. On August 12th, 2015, Roberto the market forward, especially in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
was elected as the new FNC CEO. In the future they will do more in China.
Roberto was born and grown in a coffee-growing family.
At the age of 25, he started working at the FNC; 23 years later, Colombian Coffee and Chinese Coffee
he was sent to Japan as FNC director in Asia. He said he knows China, both as coffee exporter and importer, has a great
the Asian market very well, even better than the European and potential for the coming years. Yunnan’s coffee industry has
American ones. Since 1999, he has visited China more than 20 developed fast recently, no matter if it is for coffee growing or
times. He said that, “At the time, there was almost no coffee, coffee production. With a huge population, China is seen as the
except in five-star hotels. But now the development of the coffee most potential coffee consumer.
industry is quite unbelievable.” Roberto said he cannot comment about Yunnan coffee
yet, but he is pleased to see its rapid development. As for coffee
Colombian coffee, “We focus on quality and quantity” consumption, he believes that China was like Japan in the 60-70s
As the third-largest coffee producer, only after Brazil of last century.
and Vietnam, Colombia’s coffee plantations set a new record.
After 2009 as the worst crop year recently, Colombia recorded
a successful harvest in 2015. I wondered if Colombia would focus
on quality or quantity in the future.
Roberto said BOTH. Quantity means export volume, which
directly impacts coffee growers’ income. But quality is also very
significant. Low quality means losing your market and renown.
Therefore, for Colombia, quality and quantity are equally
important.

Variety
There are many barista world contestants using Colom-
bia coffee in competitions. The 2015 World Barista Champion,
Sasa Sestic, used a Colombian coffee from Las Nubes farm,
featuring a special process. I asked Roberto if the FNC has new
plans to process Colombian coffee in innovative ways.
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