In this episode I speak with Alejandro Renjifo who was the one who introduced me to Colombia back in 2007 and who is exporting the coffees we buy from Elias Roa and his farm Finca Tamana.

Alejandro has a long history in the coffee industry and is one of the pioneers in the developing of the FNC’s (Colombian Coffee Growers Federation) specialty coffee program.

Today Alejandro is an exporter of high quality Colombian coffees and he loves to facilitate connections and help establish long term relationships between coffee growers and coffee roasters.

This was not really a structured conversation but since Alejandro is an opinionated person and has a lot of history and knowledge about quality coffee in Colombia I thought it would be nice to have a long conversation to get a better insight to Colombia as a coffee producing country. 

Alejandro loves to talk, so we discuss everything from Colombian coffee varieties &  rust resistance and why most coffees are not sustainably grown in Colombia. He also touches on the history of Colombian coffee and why he was asked to introduce a «specialty coffee» program by the FNC.

More importantly we speak about the importance of relationships and what that really means and  Alejandro shares his opinion on why he believes that commitment in the coffee trade is the only way to make it transformative for the growers and the roasters. 

Music by my uncle Jens Wendelboe