Colombian coffee growers appoint new director

Colombian coffee growers on Thursday elected the acting administrator of their industry federation as its new director to replace Gabriel Silva who left to become the country’s defense minister. Luis Genaro Munoz, who was interim director, was voted in as the new head of the National Federation of Coffee Growers, which is in the middle of a campaign to rejuvenate coffee crops in the world’s No. 3 producer.

Munoz, a federation veteran who says he will follow Silva’s policy line, was competing against Luis Guillermo Echeverri, a Colombian representative to the InterAmerican Development Bank, and Juan Guillermo Angel, a central government advisor for San Andres island in the Caribbean.

« It will be my responsibility to ensure the continuity of policies that guarantee equality in the support from the federation to each and everyone of the coffee regions, » Munoz said after winning the post.

Munoz won backing of 11 of the 15 coffee-producing regions who vote in the election. But he failed to win support from the provinces of Antioquia, Caldas, Cundinamarca, and Quindio, which account for 38 percent of the national production.

The new director must follow the success of Silva, praised for modernizing federation management while supporting growth of the Juan Valdez coffee chain brand, a crop renovation program and promotion of specialty coffees.

Colombia, the world’s top exporter of high-quality soft arabicas, has seen its production slide due to bad weather and the crop program which replaces aging trees. Those factors have pushed up premiums for the country’s beans.

Source : Reuters