STiR coffee and tea magazine

56 STiR coffee and tea / Issue 1, 2018 (February / March) Juan Valdez Cafés E By Bethany Haye stablishing a global chain of Juan Valdez shops has been a recurring project for the FNC (National Federation of Colombian Coffee Growers) since the 1960s. Now in its third and most ambitious incarnation, the 326-strong inter- national Juan Valdez Café chain is once again ready to take on the world. Will it succeed? The brand is strong, the quality of service and coffee served is among the very best in the world. Coffee connoisseurship is thriving globally. Colombia has returned to a level of stability and growth after decades of civil war, and is seeing a rise in production, contrary to other premium-growing countries. But the challenges are daunting. Will this new chapter in the Juan Valdez Cafés story be its breakthrough moment? Will all the FNC's innovative, pro-active work pay off this time? Lucky for them, Colombia's growers have FNC, and FNC has Procafecol. A brief history: FNC was started in 1927 by the country's coffee growers and the government in response to the growers' demands for better prices and more logistical support. Procafecol was created as its promotional arm in 2002 to manage and commercial- ize the Juan Valdez brand. This was in response to the coffee crisis of the late 1990s, when prices fell so low that most of the activities of FNC were effectively defunded and growers were thrown into poverty. Procafecol is a private company based on the then revolutionary idea that Colombia's 560,000 coffee-growing families should not be hostage to commodities markets and should share in added value. By the 1950s, coffee beans made up 80% of Colombia's exports and accounted for 27% of GDP. Beans from Colombia were a mainstay of ground coffee sold in the US and Europe, but prices were low, and the flavorful varieties were often blended with lesser quality non-Colombian beans to make them more palatable and saleable. Unlike Brazil, Colombia's coffee farms were almost all small (averaging under four acres) and family owned – most still are. The beans continue to be hand-picked in a constant daily process as they ripen a few at a time all year round. Yet, practically no one – 4% of those surveyed in the US in the 1950s – knew where their coffee came from or even that Colombia produced coffee. FNC hired New York ad agency DDB to make it famous. The character of Juan Valdez was created for the occasion, the words "100% Colombian Coffee" were trademarked. The fight was on to protect and promote the newly-minted brand, and Colombia became the first coffee-producing country with an active strategy for differentiating and marketing its unique product. Proof that the campaign was successful, beyond yearly increases in gross sales, came in steadily mounting consumer awareness. By 2004, a market research survey Syphon coffee at Juan Valdez Cafés Industrial rustic design Juan Valdez Café Quindío, Colombia photo credit Anderson Avila Silva photo by Katy Smith photo courtesy FNC

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