Colombian farmers find stability in shifting from coca to coffee
BOGOTÁ, October 22, 2025 — In Naranjal, a small farming community in Colombia’s Valle del Cauca region, over a hundred families are demonstrating that replacing the drug economy is not about sermons or slogans — it’s about securing buyers, restoring dignity, and allowing time for change.
The local cooperative, Asoculsan, brings together approximately 400 producers — 40 percent of whom are under 30 — who grow cocoa, chilli peppers, coffee, and fruits such as passion fruit, lulo, and lemons. Crucially, they don’t plant in hope of a buyer, but based on contracts that are already in place. This, they say, is “certainty replacing fear.”
Asoculsan negotiated a direct supply agreement with Grupo Éxito, Colombia’s largest supermarket chain, now owned by El Salvador’s Grupo Calleja. “Éxito buys everything we grow, and that drives the local economy,” said Cano, a leading member of the cooperative, speaking to EFE news agency. Trucks that once transported coca paste in secret now openly collect fresh produce. For Cano and her community, markets — not mantras — are what keep people rooted.
Her journey began with persistence. “It hasn’t been easy,” she admitted, describing how she repeatedly lobbied Grupo Éxito’s leadership until they finally agreed to visit Naranjal. That visit proved transformative. Instead of empty promises or speeches about alternative livelihoods, the farmers received something concrete: a purchase order.
In the past, government campaigns urged growers to abandon coca crops, but rarely provided viable alternatives. Now, for the first time, supply chains are being built in reverse — from supermarket shelf to soil. It’s a lesson development experts have often overlooked: you cannot preach your way out of a narco-economy. What farmers need is what companies like Coca-Cola once offered — stability, steady cash flow, and confidence that their labour leads somewhere.
In Naranjal, that “somewhere” is finally legal. As fruit trucks replace armed buyers and formal receipts replace whispered rumours, farmers are not just surviving — they are breathing again. “This is proof that rural Colombia can stand on its own if someone is willing to buy what we grow,” said Cano. And that shift is starting to catch on.
At the national level, Colombia is rethinking its decades-long war on drugs. For years, U.S.-funded eradication campaigns sent soldiers and planes to torch coca fields from the air, only for the crops to reappear. Now, President Gustavo Petro is pursuing a different approach — focusing on substitution rather than eradication, and partnership instead of punishment.
“Substitution is not simply changing one plant for another,” said Gloria Miranda, head of the government’s Directorate for the Substitution of Illicit-Use Crops, in comments to EFE. “The cure lies in structure — cooperatives, logistics, and contracts that allow farmers to plan for years, not days.” As she put it, “The goal is to rebuild entire economies, not just fields.”
Progress on the ground doesn’t always look like policy reform. Sometimes, it comes in the form of pallets of oranges. According to Grupo Éxito president Carlos Calleja, the company currently purchases around 20 tonnes of produce from Asoculsan every month. He believes long-term success lies not in miracles, but in models — replicable systems that align profitability with peace.
https://thecooperator.news/former-combatants-transform-colombias-coffee-industry/
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