Title: Organic Colombian Coffee to Help Preserve Rain Forest
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 10/19/98

PARIS, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Colombian group Daabon Organic Specialists is betting on consumers' growing interest for organic products to help preserve the fragile ecosystem of the Colombian rain forest.

Daabon is promoting at the Paris International Food Salon (SIAL) organic arabica coffee grown by the Kogee people in the Santa Marta Mountains rain forest, north of Colombia.

Under a privately funded programme the Kogee and other indigeneous people receive between 20 and 30 percent more for their crop than if they sold it on the local market, Daabon director general Manuel Julian Davila Abondano
told Reuters.

"The idea is to grow and promote organic coffee to help preserve the ecosystem of the rain forest," he said.

The programme started in 1992 helps the Kogee buy back their own land and teaches them how to hand-pick the beans.

The coffee is certified free of any chemical agent both during growing and processing.

Annual production of 6,000 bags of 70 kg each is targeted to a niche market for high-quality organic coffee and commands a 30 percent premium over normal coffee but business has been growing steadily, Davila Abondano said.

Daabon is marketing its coffee in the United States, its number one market but also in France and Germany, where it is available in organic food stores.

It is introducing a new brand of freeze dried instant coffee at SIAL targeted to the British market. But Japan, a growing market for organic food, remains its big target.

Dominique Vidalon, Paris Newsroom
+33 1 4221 5452, fax +33 1 4236 1072, paris.newsroom@reuters.com

Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.