Colombia, Nespresso to help farmers swap coca for coffee

A charitable initiative will help farmers in Colombia’s southwestern mountains trade nearly 400 hectares (1,000 acres) of coca, the base ingredient in cocaine, for coffee, the growers’ federation said on Tuesday, part of an effort to fight drug production.

The program, a partnership between the Colombian government, Nestle’s Nespresso and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, will initially fund substitution in the area of El Rosario, in Narino province.

Narino, which borders the Pacific Ocean and Ecuador, is a top coca-growing area.

The 1,000 families who are part of the effort will initially produce 500 60-kg bags of coffee from their land, all of which will be purchased by Nespresso, participants said at the launch of the program in Bogota.

Colombia has long been ranked as the world’s top producer of cocaine, and figures compiled by the United Nations for 2017 showed the largest potential output since the organization’s record-keeping began, with production of the drug at 1,379 metric tons.

The government wants to destroy more than 200,000 hectares (494, 210 acres) of coca through voluntary substitution programs and forced eradication carried out by the military.

Reuters