Annette Acosta Remembers her F2F Assignment with Young Coffee Entrepreneurs

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The coffee industry in Colombia represents 25% of the rural employment of the country, with more than 540,000 families growing coffee around the nation. It is a vital industry for the economy, but like most of the agricultural sectors, revenues are not enough to provide a quality life for the farmers and their families, pushing the young generations to stop the family traditions and move towards other professions and to the cities. 
  
To avoid this problem, an innovation boot camp was created by the National Coffee Federation (FedeCafe) to support young coffee entrepreneurs on their journey to innovate and develop new ideas to generate revenue streams from the coffee industry. The four-day camp, Idéate Café, took place in Chinchiná, a small town in the middle of the mountains in the coffee region, with 100 participants and more than 20 coaches, mentors, and experts to support 50 business ideas. 


The ideas were innovative and had a lot of potential, and I was mentoring the young entrepreneurs on how to build their business and financial models. It is crucial to look at numbers and see the profit-earning capacity of the business to make it financially viable. I was helping the participants plan their potential sales, their initial investment, fix and variable costs, so they could have a broader perspective on their ideas and become a real business. 

The host organization, FedeCafe, was incredible, they received me with open arms and made me feel welcomed. Hats off to their fantastic staff, who are committed to helping young coffee farmers stay in business. I was moved and inspired by all the passionate people who work to help rural communities in Colombia and hope I can keep working with them in the future.

Without a doubt, connecting with young rural farmers and seeing their will to improve their livelihoods was an enriching experience. I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to share some of my experience and knowledge with the young generations and hope to stay connected with them. I left Colombia with nothing but good memories of the country and its people.


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