Congresses & Conferences 43
Medellin-based textile-fashion industry trade group Inexmoda reported July 26 that the just-concluded, 29th annual “Colombiamoda” show at Plaza Mayor generated sales deals worth US$169 million.
While that was about 6% short of what organizers had initially hoped for this year's edition, it's nevertheless a generally positive sign, given relatively weak economic conditions that have pinched regional clothing demand over the past couple of years, according to Inexmoda.
Some 500 entrepreneurs -- 84% Colombian nationals (with Antioquia the biggest single group) and 16% international – cut deals with some 11,000 buyers from 40 countries at this year's show. Ecuador (17% of international buyers), Mexico (15%) the United States (14%) and Peru (9%) were the biggest groups of foreign buyers, according to Inexmoda.
For the total 27,200 visitors to the show, highlights included demonstrations and fashion parades from 46 major fashion designers and 10 commercial brands, according to Inexmoda.
In this year’s special graphic-arts design section at the show, 25 artists “expressed the latest trends in finished product graphics,” via four special conferences and two workshops attended by 150 potential customers.
“Taking advantage of the digital transformation that is currently happening, for this edition of Colombiamoda, a ‘Business Agenda Platform’ was organized for the first time, featuring a web portal where 11,000 national and international buyers could make 409 appointments with the 500 exhibitors” at the show, according to Inexmoda.
A parallel “Business Conference of New Technologies” organized by Colombia’s Ministry of Technology, Information and Commerce and the ProColombia export agency brought together 30 exporters of information technology and digital content related to the fashion industry. These exporters connected with some 78 entrepreneurs in the industry, generating business expectations of US$1.1 million, according to Inexmoda.
Meanwhile, the Inexmoda "Knowledge Pavilion" – organized by Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana – attracted 12,138 live attendees 4,051 others via internet streaming for expert talks on the latest in fashion and consumer-demographic trends this year.
Besides generating hefty sales deals for clothing designers and manufacturers, the show also netted the city of Medellin an estimated US$9 million in hotel, restaurant and transportation revenues, according to Medellin’s Secretary of Industry and Tourism.
The 2018 edition of the show included the latest clothing designs from Exito's "Arkitect" brand at the opening, Isabel Henao designs at the closing, as well as renowned Andrés Pajón, Camilo Álvarez, Andrea Landa and SOY collections, “among the great figures on the catwalks of ‘La Semana de la Moda’ in Colombia,” according to the show organizer.
"Arkitect" fashion designer Custo Barcelona developed a line that "continues to democratize fashion, including clothing production 100% made-in-Colombia,” according to Inexmoda.
Other veteran designers on the fashion agenda this year included Diego Guarnizo and María Luisa Ortiz (presented by The Foundation for Women AVON); Andrés Pajón, Camilo Alvarez and Andrea Landa (presented by Chevrolet); and ALADO, celebrating 10 years of fashion-industry trajectory, according to the group.
Emerging designers featured at “El Cubo” included Geraldine Lustgarten, Kinira Swimwear, La Mar, Vana, Beat-a-bee and Afrikans, while other young designers such as Alexandra Bueno, Rocío Borré (with her trademark “Bahamamama” beach wear), María Alejandra Cajamarca (with her “Bahía María” swimwear) separately were featured at a “Nonstop Moda” event.
International clothing designer GEF returned to Colombiamoda this year, along with other major brands including Offcorss, Maaji, Ann Chery, Chamela, Trucco's Jeans, Carmen Steffens and People, according to Inexmoda.
Inexmoda -- the Medellin-based national trade group for Colombia’s textile and fashion industry – announced January 25 that the 30th annual “Colombiatex” show here generated new business deals likely to top US$356 million, surpassing last year’s estimate of US$326 million.
In total, 36% of the dollar value of projected new-business deals here involved purchase of textiles; 28% involved machinery, 19% in feedstocks other than fibers; 10% in fibers, and 7% in “other” supplies.
In all, 22,653 people from 60 nations attended this year’s version of Colombiatex – up 3% year-on-year – among which were 14,023 commercial buyers, 13% of those international. Among the internationals, 28% came from Ecuador; 10% from Mexico and 8% from the USA.
During the three-day event (January 23-25), Colombiatex once again cemented its position among Latin America’s leading textile-industry trade shows -- with growing evidence of renewed industry optimism this year, following a difficult 2017, when Colombian consumers were hit by higher retail value-added (IVA) taxes and an economic slow-down, as noted in a closing press conference by Inexmoda president Carlos Eduardo Botero.
This year’s show over-flowed the entire Plaza Mayor inside-space capacity, spilling into tented staging-areas adjacent -- resulting in more-than 12,000 square meters of commercial show area for the 579 exhibitors from 22 countries.
Brazil – which in December 2017 approved a two-way, free-trade agreement with Colombia, eliminating duties on textiles and clothing -- led the field in international exhibitors (21%), with India second (19%) and Spain third (10%), according to Inexmoda.
“The Colombiatex model gives us a very positive cost-benefit and the [participating] companies are very satisfied, especially given the new agreement between Mercosur nations [Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina] and Colombia, which stimulates bilateral trade relations,” added Rafael Cervone, executive director of the Texbrasil textile promotional group.
In addition to the surging crowds and bigger buying deals, Colombiatex also hosted 21 lectures on industrial, technical, social, environmental, marketing and fashion trends -- organized by Medellin’s Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB) and attended by 7,300 in-person, plus another 6,700 via internet streaming to international audiences, thanks to live broadcasts by local TV station Telemedellin.
Another nine “trends-forum” sessions here attracted 1,038 attendees for special insights into textile and fashion concepts, while 10 other workshops examined emerging challenges facing textile and clothing manufacturers.
Meanwhile, a concurrent “fashion system business roundtable” organized by the Mayor of Medellin and business-promotion agency ProColombia brought-together 161 local exporters and 85 international buyers, generating an estimated US$9 million in additional business deals.
Yet another new feature to this year’s edition of Colombiatex included 32 independent graphic and visual artists who showed their designs and explained the latest technical trends in graphics, colors and textures. Meanwhile, “Denim Day” demonstrations -- now a leading feature at Colombiatex -- showed the latest innovations in design and manufacture in jeans-wear.
Finally, according to figures provided by the Medellin Mayor’s office, each foreign attendee to Colombiatex this year was estimated to have spent (on average) about COP$2,416,320 (US$858) per day in hotel, meals, transport and other expenses, with a net economic benefit to the city of about US$12 million.
Medellin-based Inexmoda – the trade association for Colombia’s textile and fashion industry – announced December 5 that the 30th annual “Colombiatex” trade show will bring-together some 550 companies, 125 exhibitors and about 15,800 buyers from 60 countries.
The show -- running January 23-25, 2018, at Medellin’s Plaza Mayor convention center – will feature displays and demonstrations of textile manufacturing, novel materials, chemicals, new technologies, emerging fashion trends and business analysis.
Medellin’s Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB) will offer 17 expert presentations at the adjacent Teatro Metropolitano, while the main Plaza Mayor will host another 15 workshops on business models, communications, brand marketing, technologies and sustainable practices, according to Inexmoda.
The Medellín metro area (including Bello, Marinilla, Don Matias and Santa Rosa de Osos) is home to 38% of Colombia’s national textile production, specializing in cotton, polyester mixtures, specialty wools, flat panels and stitching, the trade group noted.
Key markets for Medellin textile products include the USA, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Brasil and Costa Rica. (The formerly robust export market to Venezuela has collapsed in recent years thanks to that country’s disastrous “socialist” economic policies).
“Colombiatex has established itself as a reference space for the Latin American market, in addition to presenting a very good image for the sector,” said Ana Marcela García, chief executive at Artextil, exhibiting at Colombiatex for 25 years now. “It is the perfect opportunity to generate synergies that strengthen us as a world-class sector,” she added.
On a similar note, Enka-Colombia president Álvaro Hincapié Vélez noted that his company has participated in every Colombiatex fair since its launch in 1987.
“The history of Enka can be described as a story of transformation in which we’ve succeeded in making [materials] recyling a sustainable business,” Hincapie explained.
“Today, more than 45% of our products are derived from recycled materials -- and in this edition of Colombiatex we’re launching our new ‘EKO’ filaments made from recycled PET [polyethylene terephthalate] plastic bottles,” he said.
This year’s special invitee is Brazil, sponsored by ABIT, Apex-Brasil, Abimaq and Assintecal. The new free-trade agreement between Colombia and Brazil “enables Colombian clothing and textiles to enter Brazil without tariffs,” Inexmoda noted.
For Colombiatex 2018, a new section will be dedicated to high-tech graphic arts in clothing manufacture, the trade group added.
Organizers of the biannual Feria Internacional del Sector Electrico (FISE) electric-power industry conference in Medellin announced December 1 that this year’s edition generated US$230 million in new business deals, of which US$214 million involved 50 international buyers and US$10.9 million from 80 national buyers.
FISE’s organizers include the Chamber of Commerce of Medellin for Antioquia (CCM), the “Cluster Energia Sostenible” (the 867-member power-industry group of metro Medellin), the Medellin municipal government, and Medellin-based electric-power research group CIDET (Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo del Sector Eléctrico).
Organizers combined this year’s version of FISE with two concurrent conferences – the International Center for Hydropower (ICH), and the fifth congress of the Latin American energy integration group (Comisión de Integración Energética Regional, CIER).
Medellin is at the center of Colombia’s top international electric-power conferences as it hosts the nation’s biggest multinational power producers, transmitters, distributors and engineering giants, including EPM, Isa, Isagen, XM and HMV Ingenieros. What's more, city-owned multinational power giant EPM by itself provides 25% of the annual revenues for Medellin, as Mayor Federico Gutierrez pointed-out in a press conference here.
In addition, once the 2.4-gigawatt “Hidroituango” hydropower plant (owned by EPM and the Antioquia departmental government) is in full production by 2021, Antioquia alone will produce more than 50% of all Colombia’s electric power, as sustainable-energy-cluster director Jaime Arenas Plata explained to Medellin Herald.
Following start-up, Hidroituango would generate roughly COP$6 trillion (US$2 billion) in annual revenue, Mayor Gutierrez added.
The three industry conferences – held concurrently at Medellin’s Plaza Mayor conference center – together attracted an estimated 15,000 delegates, plus 158 technical sessions (which attracted 3,300 delegates), taking 20,000 square meters of show-floor space (the entire Plaza Mayor capacity), and brought 310 exhibitors from 20 countries – including 208 from Colombia, 15 from Mexico, 13 from the USA, 12 from China, 12 from Brazil, 10 from Argentina, six from Norway, five from Germany, four from Spain and two each from Ecuador, the Czech Republic and Turkey.
Exhibitors and technical talks rose sharply, while the international business-deal estimate for 2017 was nearly double that of 2015 -- the product of 700 arranged negotiations involving buyers from 16 nations, as ProColombia regional director Santiago Viera Ochoa explained in a closing press conference.
‘Smart City’ Highlights EVs, Power Networking
This year’s version of FISE featured a first-ever “Smart City Experience” section including demonstrations of electric cars, motorcycles and bikes, organized by FISE and Medellin’s Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB) university.
The “Smart City” also included demonstrations of computer-controlled street-lighting systems, advanced sensors and automated controls for energy-efficient homes and offices, a mock-up of Medellin-based national power-grid operator and power-trading center XM, plus technical presentations on Medellin’s expanding electric vehicle (EV) fleet and recharge network.
While Medellin hopes to expand its electric vehicle (EV) fleet, the city today has less-than 200 total EVs, with public EV-recharge-capacity for only 5,000 more -- compared to the city’s 700,000 gasoline-powered motorcycles and 650,000 gasoline or diesel-powered cars, trucks and buses, Mayor Gutierrez pointed out in his press conference prior to the launch of the "Smart CIty" exhibit.
However, EPM distributed-power technical expert Jorge Mario Ramirez explained in a presentation here that EPM is working with taxi fleets on a plan to bring 1,500 EV taxis to Medellin over the next three years, to complement the existing electric-powered Metro rail, “Metrocable” aerial trams, the “Tranvia” electric road trams and the eventual conversion of today’s natural-gas-powered “Metroplus” bus-rapid-transit (BRT) buses to all-electric power.
Broader adoption of EV’s in Medellin would help slash the city’s air pollution – 80% of which is caused by a huge fleet of diesel and gasoline cars, trucks, buses and motorcycles (many of them obsolete), as Mayor Gutierrez pointed-out.
To help jump-start this transition, EPM employees have been running experimental trials of EVs since 2012. But the company only launched promotion of an incipient public-recharge network last month.
Meanwhile, Colombia’s national government recently extended the 0% tariff on imported EVs for the next three years (for a maximum 3,000 vehicles) -- and the value-added tax (IVA) was cut to 5%, from 19% for most other goods in Colombia. IVA on EVs could be cut to zero if a bill pending in the Colombian Senate eventually passes.
EV’s also enjoy an exemption from Medellin's “pico-y-placa” control system that bans cars with certain license-plate numbers from operating on certain days.
Another law passed earlier this year slashes the cost of installing an EV recharge station by 80%. Typical residential recharge installations are estimated at COP$1 million (US$330) to COP$2 million (US$660), depending upon complexity and distance between the garage and customer’s meter, Ramirez estimated.
Still, the cost of EV batteries needs to fall even more in order to attract more car buyers, as Mayor Gutierrez and numerous other experts pointed-out at FISE here. Once new EV cars have an initial cost that’s similar to a comparable gasoline-powered car, then EV sales are likely to skyrocket beyond the 1.1 million EVs sold world-wide so-far this year.
While some car buyers might worry about traveling distance between recharges, most new EVs today have a traveling autonomy (between recharges) of around 200 to 250 kilometers – far more than needed by typical daily commuters, Ramirez added.
Some 250 executives of some of the world’s top gold-mining companies are forecast to attend the second annual Colombia Gold Symposium November 14-15 at Hotel San Fernando Plaza in Medellin.
According to symposium organizer Paul Harris, delegates will hear presentations from more than 15 exploration and development companies including Minesa, Continental Gold, Red Eagle Mining and Antioquia Gold.
This year’s edition of the symposium also features a session on the copper potential of this region, “which is attracting increasing interest from large producers as well as explorers, particularly given the increasing copper price environment,” according to Harris.
On that front, Gloria Prieto of the Colombian Geological Survey (CGS) will provide an overview of Colombia’s copper potential and explain an upcoming auction of copper-exploration concessions.
“In terms of Colombia’s gold potential, Orosur will provide an update about the Anza project where it recently restarted drilling, Gran Colombia Gold will discuss the high-grade mineralization it is finding at its Marmato project and Tim Coughlin of Royal Road Minerals will talk about exploration in Nariño, one of Colombia’s most promising areas now that the civil conflict with the FARC is ending,” Harris added.
Meanwhile, Silvana Habib, president of Colombia’s National Mining Agency, and Santiago Angel of the Colombian Mining Association, will discuss “efforts to improve [mining] sector administration,” while a regulatory session will include a roundtable discussion by natural-resource lawyers discussing “strategies for companies to adopt to deal with particular aspects of bureaucracy,” he said.
On a related front, Birsa International will head a session on optimizing community relations; Intera will talk about responsible water management and communication; Brigitte Baptiste of the Humboldt Institute will discuss whether and how mining can be compatible with the environment; and Control Risks will talk through the issues and opportunities arising from Colombia’s peace process with guerilla groups.
Field trips following the conference include visits to San Matias (Cordoba Minerals), San Ramon (Red Eagle Mining), El Roble (Atico Mining), Buritica (Continental Gold) and Anza (Orosur).
On the finance front, the symposium will include expert speakers from Canadian bank CIBC, Peru’s Kallpa Securities, EY, Oreninc and NortonRose Fulbright, Harris added.
Medellin-based Agrofuturo announced September 15 that the just-concluded 11th edition of “Expo Agrofuturo” drew more than 25,000 attendees from 30 countries and generated approximately US$300 million in business deals, up nearly a third from last year’s show.
The trade show at Medellin’s Plaza Mayor convention center brought together 420 local and international companies along with dozens of experts expounding upon all facets of agriculture, with advanced technology and “green” biotech grabbing much of the limelight.
For example: Two of the three “innovation award” winners at this year’s edition – Anka Robotica and Taclla – are developers of drone-based crop detection and analysis technologies, while the third “innovation” winner was Medellin-based GE3 Biotech.
Meanwhile, this year’s “sustainability award” went to Cali-based Arroz Blanquita – a pioneering producer and marketer of organic rice, employing non-chemical pest-control schemes that are actually beneficial rather than harmful to birds and other wildlife.
On a similar note, Medellin-based banking giant Bancolombia unveiled a COP$350 billion (US$120 million) “Agroverde” line of credit for farmers employing environment-friendly technologies and production schemes.
Today, only 24% of Colombia’s arable land is used for farming -- just 5.3 million hectares of 22 million available hectares, according to Bancolombia. Another 35 million hectares in Colombia are dedicated to cattle ranching. But in many cases today, ranchers aren’t making best use of that land.
While Colombia (and Antioquia specifically) is a major world player in export of cut flowers, coffee, bananas and some tropical fruits, it has tremendous potential for expansion and diversification, as several experts from Chile (this year's special invitee) noted in a panel discussion on export development.
For example: Ricardo Navarrete -- Chile’s Embassador to Colombia – pointed out in his presentation here that while Chile has become a huge world player in fruit exports, “Colombia has much better climate conditions than Chile.”
As a result, with more robust investment in farming -- combined with upgrades in road and port infrastructure, plus continuing expansion of free-trade agreements -- Colombia could become a much bigger player in global agricultural exports, even potentially passing Chile, he added.
The Sociedad Antioqueña de Ornitologia (SAO, the Medellin ornithological society) announced September 19 that the fifth annual “Festival de las Aves de Medellin” will take flight October 3 to October 8.
All local Festival programs -- including lectures by national and international experts, special learning workshops and guided, local bird walks -- are free. But the post-festival birding trips to Manantiales or Napoles, Antioquia -- which require special advance registrations -- carry separate charges.
Complete Festival program details -- including instructions on how to sign-up for the workshops and the local bird walks -- are available here: https://www.festivaldelasavesmedellin.com.
Registrations for the post-festival birding trips (Manantiales or Napoles)-- departing October 6 and returning October 8 -- can be made here: https://www.festivaldelasavesmedellin.com/pajareadaspostfestival. However, as of this writing, the Napoles birding trip was already fully booked.
The option for joining the (still-available at this writing) Manantiales birding trip is nothing short of spectacular (see: http://www.medellinherald.com/ecot/item/239-paradise-restored-manantiales-nature-reserve-symbolizes-colombia’s-hopeful-future, titled "Paradise Restored: Manantiales Nature Reserve Symbolizes Colombia’s Hopeful Future," Medellin Herald, January 04, 2016).
According to the SAO, the annual Medellin Bird Festivals “seek to position Medellin as the 'Bird Capital of the World,' as recognized nationally and internationally, and also so that local citizens learn to appreciate their natural heritage.
“It’s clear that people only love and appreciate what they know -- which is why it is vital to integrate scientific [bird] knowledge with educational-cultural events in our city spaces. Thus, this Festival seeks to offer the public a place for recreation and learning which generates knowledge, ownership and awareness of the great diversity of birds that are hosted in this territory.”
Lecture, workshop and birding highlights this year include:
8 am-12 noon Wednesday, October 3: Workshop for children on how to use the “Merlin” bird-identification cell-phone application, at EAFIT university in Medellin (Las Vegas campus).
2 pm Wednesday, October 3: Workshop on how to prevent collisions of birds against buildings and other structures, at Corantioquia headwaters in Medellin.
2-3 pm Wednesday, October 3: Workshop for adults on how to use the “Merlin” bird-identification cell-phone application, EAFIT university (Las Vegas).
3-4 pm Wednesday, October 4: Official debut of new illustrated book, “Birds of Ituango,” by EPM and University of Antioquia, and a bird-photography exhibition, both at EAFIT university (Las Vegas).
5:30 am to 11 am Thursday, October 5: Choice of bird walks either to Parque Arvi, Parque Presidenta, or San Sebastian de la Castellana.
2 pm Thursday, October 5: Lecture on Medellin’s new “green corridors” (Planetarium auditorium, next to Parque Explora).
2:50 pm Thursday, October 5: Lecture featuring professors and children from Restrepo, Meta department, on their novel “Alas de Saber” ornithology-teaching curriculum for children, at Planetarium.
3:45 pm Thursday, October 5: Expert lecture on ow to prevent bird collisions with power lines in Colombia, at Planetarium.
6 pm Thursday, October 5: “Science on Bicycles” event featuring hummingbird observations. Departs from Planetarium.
5:30 a.m.-11 am Friday, October 6: Optional bird-walks to Parque Arvi, Parque Presidenta, San Sebastian de la Castellana, EAFIT Llanogrande or EAFIT Medellin (Las Vegas campus).
2 pm Friday, October 6: Lecture on the birds of the Alto de San Miguel nature reserve (Caldas, Antioquia), EAFIT university (Las Vegas campus).
4 pm Friday, October 6: Lecture on the “Merlin” birding application by Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology (USA) bird expert Drew Weber, EAFIT university (Las Vegas campus).
6 pm Friday, Octrober 6: Lecture on urban birds by Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology bird expert Karen Purcell, EAFIT university (Las Vegas campus).
Medellin-based national textile/fashion-industry trade group Inexmoda announced July 27 that the just-concluded 28th annual “Colombiamoda” show – the leader of its type in all of Latin America -- generated US$179 million in new business.
However, that figure was down more than 50% from last year’s version -- mainly as a result of this year’s economic downturn in Colombia and nearby markets, including the catastrophic socio-economic situation in neighboring “socialist” Venezuela and a sharp recession in neighboring Ecuador.
While disappointed by the sales commitments – measured and audited by Invamer Gallup -- Inexmoda leaders nevertheless pointed to the positive impacts of the show, which included 56,800 visitors, 600 exhibitors, 69 fashion shows, 22 business-trends conferences and 12 technical workshops.
“At this moment in time, the economy of our country displays symptoms of deceleration, and the textile-clothing industry isn’t immune” from the downturn, Inexmoda president Carlos Eduardo Botero explained in a press conference at the show’s conclusion.
“In this edition [of Colombiamoda], business was lower than our expectations. We had a higher percentage of buyers who expressed their intention to buy, but they cut their average ticket in half, which shows that they are being more cautious when investing,” he added.
Of the 23,412 registered attendees to the commercial portion of Colombiamoda, 12,394 were buyers, of which 87% were Colombian nationals and 13% international buyers from 56 countries, according to Inexmoda.
Major highlights of the show focused upon “formal casual” wear, jeanswear, footwear and “complete package” clothing, footwear and accessories. The adjacent “Textiles2” show included 90 exhibitors, including raw-materials suppliers and “complete package” vendors.
High-technology was another major highlight for vendors and buyers, including a business round-table organized by Colombia’s Ministry of Technology and trade-development agency ProColombia.
Sixty-one high-fashion designers and 400 models displayed the latest in fashion at runway shows for 22,800 attendees, including special themes sponsored by Cotton USA, “El Cubo,” “NonStop,” “Moda de Colombia” and many others.
Max Factor, Wella Professionals and Sally Hansen provided make-up and styling services for the fashion models, while electric-power giant Celsia contributed specialized lighting for the runway shows.
Medellin-based Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB) organized 12 workshops and 22 conferences on fashion-industry and consumer trends, for 10,168 attendees along with 8,300 live-streaming viewers at the adjacent Teatro Metropolitano, according to Inexmoda.
The show also generated US$12.5 million in extra business for local hotels, restaurants, taxis and services, with hotel occupancy hitting 91%, Medellin Mayor Federico Gutierrez added.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton told an overflow audience for the first-ever World Coffee Producers Forum July 11 that Medellin’s transformation from the world’s most violent city 25 years ago to a global leader in social innovation and progress might foretell what Colombia as a whole eventually could become.
Holding the prestigious World Coffee Producers Forum in Medellin would have been “unthinkable” in years past, because of the city’s bad reputation, he said. But Medellin -- where Colombia's Federacion Nacional de Cafeteros (the coffee-growers' trade group) was born 90 years ago -- has since become a beacon for hope, he added.
“Colombia could be unrecognizable in 20 years -- in a good way,” if wise social policy and “smart” investment continue to build upon the example that Medellin has set in recent years, Clinton told an overflow crowd of more than 1,000 forum delegates from 40 countries at the InterContinental Hotel here in Medellin.
Clinton likewise praised Medellin’s pioneering development of novel public-transit systems, which include outdoor escalators in mountainside neighborhoods, aerial trams, Metro rail, bus rapid transit (BRT) and free bicycles -- mainly serving the poorer and middle-class sectors of the city.
Positive results from “smart” urban social policy and investment similarly could be replicated via “smart” investment and development in rural areas – not just in the surrounding Antioquia department (which today has more than 80,000 coffee farmers) but also elsewhere in Colombia and world-wide, Clinton added.
Citing improvements from recent Clinton Foundation projects in Indonesia and Africa, Clinton pointed out that “smart” rural development -- using coffee as an “anchor” crop -- has been proven to reduce social conflicts and violence.
Expansion of “smart” coffee development in Colombia likewise could help to reduce coca-plantation acreage -- and the related violence and narco-trafficking that accompany coca production, he added.
What’s more, such “smart” coffee development also can help reduce deforestation, which has helped to preserve Colombia’s world-leading diversity in birds and orchids, Clinton added. Such preservation of forests, flowers and wildlife also can deliver big gains in profitable ecotourism, as Costa Rica has shown, he said.
However, Clinton cautioned that “smart” coffee development ought to incorporate crop diversification -- so that farmers don’t become too reliant on a single commodity that has a long history of price volatility.
This cautious message about over-reliance on coffee stood in contrast to emotional pleas here from presidents of several nations as well as producer-association leaders, all of whom urged the launch of aggressive campaigns aiming to convince multinational coffee buyers to redistribute a greater portion of their profits to coffee producers.
For example: Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos stated here that a cup of coffee retailing for US$3.50 at upscale coffee shops in Europe or the USA only nets Colombian coffee producers about US$0.05 – an “obnoxious” differential in share-of-profits, he said.
Columbia University (New York) economics professor Jeffrey Sachs added in a keynote presentation here that doubling this US$0.05 producer share-of-profits to US$0.10 (per cup of coffee) would make a huge difference for producer sustainability, while hardly affecting consumers.
While some sort of future, global agreement among coffee producers to restrict output theoretically might improve producer margins, it’s practically impossible to get the 60 producer nations to agree, Santos said -- citing the failed “Pancafe Fund” initiative of decades past.
While wholesale buyers of coffee today may enjoy relatively low acquisition costs, global coffee inventories have been declining as many former producers have quit the business, citing unsustainable margins and declining availability of farm-workers, Santos warned.
As a result, coffee today is more vulnerable to price spikes – which could result from (for example) a potentially disastrous frost event in Brazil, the world’s biggest-volume producer, he said.
“It’s in the interest of everybody [in the global coffee chain] for a friendly agreement to pay a better price to producers,” Santos argued. “And the social benefits to the world’s 25 million coffee farmers would be enormous.”
Meanwhile, the recent “peace” agreement between the narco-terrorist FARC organization and Colombia’s government opens big opportunities for future rural investment, Santos said.
Such investment potentially could boost Colombian coffee output from the 14 million bags/year (each bag weighing 132 pounds) sold in 2016 to 18 million or even 20 million bags/year, he said.
While "global warming" could hurt future global coffee production because of an increase in damaging rains, hail, droughts or crop diseases, Andean coffee producers including Colombia, Ecuador and Peru are seen as less-vulnerable to such impacts than relatively low-lying Brazil, Santos added.
Starbucks, USAID Team-up to Help Colombian Coffee Farmers
On a related front, U.S.-based global coffee retail giant Starbucks announced July 10 in Medellin that it's contributing US$2 million to programs in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) to provide skills training and technological tools to 1,000 young coffee farmers and also help smallholder female coffee growers in Colombia’s "post-conflict zones."
Both of these partnerships will advance the work of the Starbucks "Farmer Support Center" in Colombia, which opened in 2012 "to help connect farmers with trained agronomists and technical assistance, and expand its 'C.A.F.E. Practices' program, which is Starbucks' third-party verified sustainability program developed with Conservation International more than 15 years ago," according to the company.
The USAID public-private partnership in Colombia first started in 2013 with a $1.5 million investment, according to Starbucks. That program "has helped positively impact 20,000 farmers and expanded the collaborative program to the Tolima, Cauca, Valle and Antioquia growing regions to benefit up to 10,000 more coffee farmers," the company added.
