Quindío, the leading exporter of 2022, the department that has everything to be among the first in the country’s export basket

An analysis by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism shows that last year eight regions exported USD $12,661 million. Of these eight departments, which are part of the group of 17 that sold 99.4% of the country’s non-mining exports in 2022, the one that registered the highest growth in this kind of external sales was Quindío, a department that is positioned as the leading exporter of 2022.

| You may be interested in: Looking for a job? There are more than 34,000 job offers at the Public Employment Agency

In view of this good figure, Más Colombia interviewed the governor of Quindío, Roberto Jairo Jaramillo Cárdenas, who is also the president of the National Federation of Departments.

According to the official, in Quindío they have bet, since the beginning of the departmental government, on several components of the productive chains, which had not been sufficiently addressed in previous years. In addition, they have focused on adding value to their exportable products, among which specialty coffees stand out.

Quindío, the leading exporter of 2022

Quindío is the Colombian department that has grown the most in its export basket. Why do you think this has happened?

Since the beginning of the Government, we have made a strong commitment to several components of the production chains, which had not been sufficiently addressed in previous years.

Issues such as associativity, which facilitates economies of scale at a time when production costs have increased; such as marketing, which has always been a sticking point for agro-industrial production, but we are resolving it with international commercial allies; the leveraging of projects with financial tools such as crop insurance that small producers acquire free of charge thanks to the Government-Finagro agreement, and credits from the Agrarian Bank with a compensated interest rate assumed by the departmental administration.

This has undoubtedly strengthened the sector, which is important to be able to guarantee the contracted volumes. But we have also focused a lot on adding value to our products.

This is the case of the specialization of our coffees; we have given the producers the tools to bring out the strengths of this fruit.

There is also the focus on agro-ecology that all of our Productive Alliances have, which generates a differential to the product that is attractive in the international market.

Quindío, the leading exporter in 2022, has everything to occupy the first places in the country’s export basket in non-mining products.

For example, cocoa, as an item that we are retaking, has a huge advantage over cocoa from other regions, because thanks to the composition of our soils cadmium is not present, unlike other places where it is common.

You may also be interested in: Guide to VAT Refund 2023: How to consult it and claim it if you are a beneficiary

What is the flagship product of these exports and what updated figures in tons and dollars are you managing?

Undoubtedly our flagship product continues to be coffee. 95% of exports in 2022 correspond to this crop, which grew 112.6% according to Analdex.

This made us grow 100.8% in exports in 2022, together with other promising sectors such as Tahitian lemon, which occupies a second place in our export basket.

Coffee has been a bet in which we have not lost. From the beginning of the administration we focused on recovering the planted area, which was disappearing with the change in the productive vocation of the lands, which threatened very important aspects for Quindío such as the presence of the Departmental Committee of Coffee Growers -a very important actor for the life of the region- or the declaration of the Coffee Cultural Landscape as intangible heritage of humanity.

For this reason we decided to invest close to 34,000 million pesos of royalties in two projects that benefit a total of 1,700 families of small producers.

With these projects we are raising the quality of coffee, preparing it to compete in specialized markets, training our farmers so that they not only produce a bean of excellent quality, but also know how to negotiate with niche clients.

In this sense, it is important to highlight that this effort has been interinstitutional. Entities such as the Departmental Committee of Coffee Growers of Quindío, the Cooperative of Coffee Growers of Quindío, the Chamber of Commerce of Armenia and Quindío, have played a very important role in these processes or in separate actions that also aim to strengthen this sector in Quindío.

How many jobs are generated thanks to this coffee business and how is the distribution by municipalities?

It is estimated that, in Quindío, close to 5,000 families are dedicated to the cultivation of coffee exclusively or with alternative activities. In the primary segment, which includes planting, harvesting and drying, it is estimated that per hectare 1.2 jobs are generated.

But the figure rises when other activities related to the sector are included, such as transportation, storage, threshing, roasting, logistics to the port, commerce originated in specialty coffee shops, experiential tourism associated with the crop, the sale of agro-inputs and others.

Quindío, the leading exporter of 2022, has a long economic tradition based on coffee, which is why our infrastructure, commercial relations and the impact of coffee itself permeates all sectors of the regional economy.

However, we should focus on some municipalities where we can see the greatest impact of coffee growing on employment, it should be noted that the municipalities of the Central Cordillera are those that have the highest production: Pijao, Buenavista, Calarcá, Córdoba and especially Génova, which is where we have achieved additional projects, promoted by its mayor and that, formulated and co-financed by the Government, have managed to obtain resources from calls of the Rural Development Agency for the benefit, for example, of 154 women coffee growers.

On the other hand, the municipality of Quimbaya has the headquarters of the Cooperative that is one of the largest buyers; Armenia has Almacafé and is the headquarters of threshers and roasters; the corridor between Calarcá (the entrance to Quindío from the Túnel de La Línea) and La Tebaida (the exit to the port of Buenaventura) has the presence of important companies related to coffee.

You may also be interested in: Attention, temporary teachers in Colombia: many will be able to keep their positions with the agreement between the Government and Fecode

According to the Vice-Ministry of Foreign Trade, the purpose of the national government is to work on the promotion of export activity in the regions to improve the environment of productive chains and the consolidation of foreign trade. Is this linked to your policy in Quindío?

Since the beginning of the administration we have worked hand in hand with the national government. We welcome all the tools of the central entity that can help us to empower the department, because we see a great potential to be part of the internationalization processes that are led at the national level and, in fact, it requires that through the management of the central level the opportunities for Quindío exporting leader of 2022, in foreign markets are potentiated.

Among the actions we have taken in this area is the formulation of the internationalization plan, which recognizes the importance of the agricultural sector as the basis of our export basket.

In addition, the Government of Quindío plans to venture into unexplored sectors, as well as to diversify and strengthen the export basket through the generation of value-added products.

This project was formulated on the basis of 6 strategic axes:

• Export potential
• Market potential for its products
• Value chains to participate in global business networks
• Logistics for production, distribution and global trade of goods and services
• Sophisticated business fabric for globalization
• Territorial marketing

We have also updated the regional Competitiveness and Innovation plan, defined by 4 strategic lines called ecosystems, 10 programs and 25 subprograms.

In this document, strategic line 2, oriented to the Ecosystem for the sophistication of the productive apparatus, establishes as an objective “to increase the productivity and diversification of the productive apparatus of Quindío, the leading exporter by 2022, oriented towards a more sophisticated supply of goods and services through instruments that aim to solve market or institutional failures, at different scales such as the production business unit, those associated with the factors of production and those related to the departmental competitive environment”, in order to “satisfy the requirements of the different consumer groups in the regional, national and international markets”.

What have been the positive effects of the economic reactivation process carried out by the departmental government and which sectors have been consolidated by exports and GDP, to mention a few.

For the economic reactivation process carried out by the departmental government, it was decisive to have carried out certain actions, among which are the implementation of security measures in tourism companies; a contract with Bancóldex to cover the liquidity needs of the department caused by the Covid-19; training in electronic commerce for MSMEs; economic reactivation workshops in the municipalities, investment in infrastructure and projects in the agricultural sector; assistance and acquisition of electronic devices, information and communication technologies.

These actions allowed us to see positive effects such as:

1. Our department retains its position among the top 10 places in the Departmental Competitiveness Index (position 8, with a score of 5.84 in 2022) and the Innovation Index (position 8, with a score of 41.85 in 2021) in the last years ratifying Quindío as an export leader in 2022.
2. Increase in departmental GDP: in 2020 Quindío’s GDP was 8,241 billion pesos, in 2021 it will be 9,837 billion pesos and in 2022 it will be 11,942 billion pesos.
3. Do not decrease the participation in the National GDP even in 2020 and 2021 (0.8% percentage participation).
4. Be part of the 17 departments that sold 99.4% of the country’s non-mining exports in 2022, and be the department that reported the highest growth in external sales (From USD $244 in 2021 to USD $491 in 2022, an increase of 100.8%).

These figures include Quindío in the group of departments that grew more than the national average, along with Tolima, Huila, Magdalena, Atlántico, Valle del Cauca, Bogotá and Cundinamarca. This is why Quindío is the leading exporter in 2022.

Keep reading: Worrying decline of the manufacturing industry in May 2023: gloomy forecasts