ARTICLES
President Uribe of Colombia visits
Mesa de los Santos to learn about specialty coffee
Colombia
 Café Mesa de los Santos, a certified-organic, certified shade-grown coffee farm in Colombia, was honored to have President Alvaro Uribe visit its hacienda in Los Santos recently. |
|
President Uribe visited the farm because of his love of and interest in specialty coffee, in particular shade-grown and organic coffee, as well as to demonstrate his strong concern about the coffee crisis and its impact on more than a million Colombians who make their living growing coffee. President Uribe was accompanied by Senator Mario Uribe, Senator Alberto Montoya, Minister of Communications Marta Pinto, Minister of Transportation Andres Gallego, and Gabriel Silva, CEO of the Colombian Coffee Federation. Farm manager, Fermìn Alba, served as the dignitaries’ knowledgeable tour guide. President Uribe showed particular interest in the mature shade cafetales on the farm, where more than 20 different tree species inhabit a space of 158 trees per hectare. The biologically diverse environment of Mesa de los Santos serves as a model for other Colombian coffee farms, not only providing rich habitat for resident and migratory birds as well as amphibians, mammals and insects, but also providing a potential second source of income from fine wood. A shade coffee farm, when properly planted and maintained, will produce harvestable fine wood trees after only 15 years. President Uribe believes that diversification and moving toward the production of specialty coffee is the best way to preserve the coffee-growing trade of Colombia, with emphasis on quality and differentiation in the market. During a recent speech, he was quoted as saying, “Specialty coffee is the way to go!” While visiting the farm, he said he wishes all Colombian coffee growers could visit Mesa de los Santos to learn how to properly grow high-quality specialty coffee. President Uribe took office in August 2002, and has an approval rating of 80 percent from the Colombian population. He is the most popular president since polls began in the 1970s. Café Mesa de los Santos was certified organic in 1998. The coffee also boasts the coveted “Certified Shade-grown, Bird-friendly®” seal, awarded by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. Café Mesa de los Santos invites interested specialty coffee professionals and bird enthusiasts to visit the 180-year-old hacienda, where a team of horses is ready to transport guests through guided tours, immersing visitors in the creation of “café de sabor divino” (coffee of divine taste) and highlighting the natural beauty of the farm and its wild residents. |
For more information, please contact Kate LaPoint of To The Point Business Imaging at 206.418.9958 or Oswaldo Acevedo at telmo@cafemesadelossantos.com or visit the company’s web site at www.cafemesadelossantos.com.