Last month (September 2006) once again , I had the wonderful opportunity of visiting this beautiful region of Colombia. It was a great experience to come back and visit our high quality focused producers from south of Huila..

In the last few years,  we have been able to get involved more and more with the producers who supply us with good quality coffee from this region. Our involvement with the community has really taken a different  a holistic approach. Building a community center for this region, really gave us a different perspective and an insight of the daily activities and requirements from the families of these producers.

Times have changed and we can see a great improvement in the quality of life of the the coffee producers and their plantations.

The premiums which we have been paying for top quality coffee for years is reflecting in the way producers care for their coffee. There is more interest from these small traditional producers to produce and deliver higher quality coffee. I was very pleased to feel that the producers are no longer living in fear. The peace and security has once again reached this privileged and beautiful area, after a few years of having a devastating impact on their families, farms and well being. There is much more optimism and producers can now focus on doing what they really know..produce high quality coffee.