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Belco

Belco Colombia agency

Identity record

Towards the end of 2020, the company Belco Colombia SAS (a subsidiary of Belco SAS) was legally created, being January 2022 the start date of operations of this Agency.

The office is located in the heart of Colombia, a strategic site in the Eje Cafetero, the city of Armenia (Quindío), an obligatory logistic step of much of the coffee that goes to the port of Buenaventura, near the main cities, the capital Bogota, with very good transportation and telecommunications connections. This was the place chosen to develop our activities, the meeting place, the place where a great work team would be formed. 

  • City

    Armenia, Quindío
  • year of creation

    2020
  • Effective

    7

What we offer is quite simple...

“If coffee producers receive a fair price for their coffee, if they can make their business economically sustainable, if they receive training on how to protect their environment and produce and recognise the best coffees, and if their families live in good social conditions, then the coffee can only be excellent.”

To make this proposal work, we needed to shake up a few ideas and be present on the ground at all times: 
  • We’re not simply chasing microlots with a 90+ SCA score. We want to introduce good processes and add value to the chain.
  • Anaerobic fermentation from exotic varieties such as Geisha and Sudan Rume is not the only way to achieve an outstanding cup of coffee. We believe there are lots of variables that make a good cup, including climate, soil, shade in the plantation, variety, altitude and terroir. The idea is to understand and identify some of these variables and then use them to improve quality while also increasing productivity.
  • There are more ways of increasing productivity per hectare than by simply cutting shade trees to expose coffee to the sun. Farmers need to receive training to maintain and boost productivity while improving and caring for their environment, mainly through reforestation with native shade trees.
  • To make a social impact, it’s not enough simply to give local communities money. What they really need is training to learn about new technologies and improve their quality of life.
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Our team on the ground

Angel

Branch Manager and Sourcing Director

Angel is responsible for running the branch and finding sustainable coffee producers in Colombia and the Andean region (Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia) who meet our quality and environmentally-friendly farming specifications and who sell their coffee at a fair price.

Angel comes from a fourth generation of coffee producers in El Salvador. After spending 10 years in France working in importation, he decided to shift to the export side, bringing the knowledge he gained during those years across the globe to apply it to the Colombian coffee sector. This is a sector we see as having great potential for the future, and we are investing a significant part of our efforts to help it thrive in a sustainable way.

Cesar’s love for the coffee industry stems from his cultural roots in the coffee-growing region of Quindio. He was born and raised there in the heyday of coffee production in the 1980s.

It’s his job to guarantee the physical and sensory quality of our coffees, by taking the necessary measures upstream, from the moment the cherries are harvested, to ensure clean production free from chemical inputs. Kévin helps César with his day-to-day work, receiving coffee samples, carrying out quality analyses, roasting, and maintaining the analysis equipment.

César is a Q Grader.

César

Quality Manager

Monica

Transition Manager

Mónica is an agricultural engineer. She has worked in the coffee industry since 2010. She’s passionate about her job!

She helps producers reconnect with their production processes, from planting (analyzing the soil, climate, varieties, forest conditions, etc.) through to harvesting, to guarantee efficient use of natural resources based on scientific data and respect for natural life cycles.

Camilo brings over a decade of experience in the Colombian agri-food industry. He has solid expertise in marketing and developing agricultural products and in international logistics strategy.

He coordinates exports, manages Belco Colombia’s export supply chain, and heads the sail transport project for Colombia, where we expect to be able to ship coffees from August 2024.

Camilo

Supply Chain Manager

María Silvia

Marketing & Sales Support Manager

María Silvia fell in love with coffee growing in 2018, when fate decided that she move to the region.

She is responsible for connecting roasters and producers through actions taken by Belco at origin, in Colombia and throughout the Andean region. María Silvia manages customer visits in collaboration with the sales department as part of our customised sourcing initiative. She also collects all the necessary farm data to prepare our coffee fact files and ensure that our producers’ stories are translated as accurately as possible in your roasts.

Winnie is a chartered accountant by profession, she provides invaluable cross-disciplinary support within the branch.

She manages accounting and human resources and help organize events organization and administrative tasks.

Winnie

Administrative and Financial Assistant

Did you know?

01 / 04

Did you know that most of our farmers are small producers, cultivating less than two hectares of coffee?

Not only that, but for most producers coffee is their family’s only source of income. So they are particularly affected by low prices on the international market.

02 / 04

Did you know that Colombian coffee is produced in the mountains, and only at altitudes of between 1,300 and more than 2,000 metres?

Production costs are therefore higher than in other countries, because coffee grown in the mountains can be picked only by hand, not by machines. The poor condition and even lack of roads and the particularly isolated regions also make it one of the most expensive coffees. Yet farmers prefer to plant here because they know they will sell their coffee, given the very high demand in Colombia and its strong market.

03 / 04

Did you know that Colombian coffee is available all year round?

Colombia is one of the few countries able to produce coffee in two different seasons and in different regions, with the mitaca or traviesa (small harvest) and the main season. This is why Colombia can always supply fresh coffee at all times of year.

04 / 04

Did you know that the coffee industry is the main source of work in Colombia’s rural areas?

Not only during the harvest, but also at other times of the year, caring for coffee trees as they grow, feeding them, controlling weeds, insects and pests, and carrying out renovation work and phytosanitary controls. Coffee is an important source of employment in farms as well as in towns and cities, with a huge impact on the economy and social life.

2019
2019
2019
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Sourcer's word

Colombia remains one of the world's leading coffee-producing countries. Its regions and their varieties, stretching from the north of the country (on the border with Venezuela) to the south (on the border with Ecuador) along the three cordilleras, practically make the country a coffee continent in itself. The coffee sector is probably one of the most structured in the world, with a powerful National Federation that remains the largest exporter and distributes coffee to the major cooperatives in these different regions.

In this context, we focus a significant part of our energy on working with producer associations, which are smaller and certainly less organized than cooperatives, but offer us direct access to more exclusive regions and the coffee growers who cultivate them. Without excluding small to medium-sized farms, we work with them to offer fine plantation coffees and, with much effort and patience, develop micro-lots that reflect the identity and care given by the men and women who grow them.

We offer roasters coffees with full traceability, providing contextualized transparency so they can best share it with their end customers. These coffees are of exceptional quality not only in the cup, but also in terms of fair remuneration for the producer and environmental sustainability.

As the Colombian branch is part of a group with robust logistical and financial capabilities, we are able to deliver coffee to all corners of the globe.

Angel Barrera

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Our projects

To change our future and that of our children, Belco is committed to organic and sustainable production with these projects with a common goal.
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