526: Ancestral Coffee Cultivation and Nasa Heritage by Native Root in Cauca, Colombia

So fascinating. Look, you can find that on Amazon, if you're overseas, or in decent bookstores in the UK at the moment. Narco Ball by David Arrowsmith. This week's episode is no less special. We have the dream team from Native Root Coffee.

That's Irvin Liz and Simon Winograd. They've both been on the show separately before, but now they've teamed up to join forces. And, yes, they're doing a great job selling, I would say, sustainable and small level coffee around the world. I know they export internationally and, of course, sell nationally a lot. If you fancy some of their coffee, go to nativerootcoffee.com.

If you're in Colombia, you can just buy it online right on the website. And if you're overseas, send them an email or a WhatsApp and they'll have it sent to you within days. So excellent there. Of course, their coffee comes from smallholders, small coffee farmers in Cauca. They are of the Nasa indigenous family, a sacred family.

It is ancestral lands that is used. Anyhow, so do check it out. But they are based in Cauca, and my point being, Cauca being one of the most conflicted regions, if not the most conflicted region, in Colombia. right now, things are pretty difficult. Things are a bit tricky.

So hear from Irvin as he talks about this and explains a little bit of the situation and how this might be affecting his coffee cultivation company and distribution company. But a fascinating conversation with Irvin and Simon, Simon, who's up in the USA and, of course, making incredible contacts up there to sell coffee internationally. So don't go away. Listen to this show. We'll have the news briefing, the Colombia briefing, from Emily Hart, and then we'll be back with Irvin and Simon of Native Root Coffee.

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The ELN is currently in peace negotiations with the government. Drone attacks continue in Cauca, this week, injuring three soldiers. in Argelia. This attack was attributed to FARC dissident group, the Estado Mayor Central, the EMC. Drones play an increasingly important role in the conflict in the southwest of Colombia, as guerrilla groups have reportedly adapted commercially available drones to carry and drop explosives, as well as to run surveillance operations.

And in Antioquia this week, six soldiers were killed and four more wounded in a minefield. The group was reportedly on their way to an offensive strike against armed group the Clan del Golfo, but were unexpectedly attacked by EMC guerrilla. The High Commissioner for Peace, Oti Patiño, came out to demand that the use of landmines is completely eliminated by all armed groups. Only around half of EMC structures are still involved in peace talks with the government, the fifth round of which are to begin this week. The other blocks, largely active in Cauca, Nariño, Valle del Cauca and Amazonas, have withdrawn from peace negotiations.

Just one week, after journalist Jorge Mendez was found murdered between the town of La Gabarra and the town of Tibú in Norte de Santander, the mayor of Tibú, Richard Claro, suffered an attempt on his life. Armed men shot at his vehicle on the same road. Both the ELN and the EMC are highly active in the area.

Better news from Buenaventura, however, a city in which a truce between urban armed groups has brought violent deaths down by 70% over the last two months. Los Chotas y Los Espartanos were the two principal groups formerly fighting in the city, which had been one of the bloodiest urban conflicts in Colombia.

The Environment Ministry has announced a record decrease in deforestation in Colombia, now reportedly at its lowest rate in the last 23 years. While 124,000 hectares of forest were destroyed in 2022, in 2023 the figure was 79,000 hectares, a 36% reduction and well ahead of official targets. And as of this week, Colombia starts to say goodbye to single-use plastics. Of the 21 prohibited in a new law, eight will be banned as of this week, including supermarket bags, plastic packaging for newspapers, cotton buds with plastic stems and straws. 700,000 tonnes of plastic containers and packaging are put on the market every year in Colombia, around 210 tonnes per day, only 3% of which is reintroduced back into the circular chain.

Replacements for the newly banned products must therefore be sustainable, focusing on biodegradability, compostability and the use of recycled raw materials from national sources. Businesses and establishments that continue to use any of the eight banned plastics may not only be fined, but have products confiscated or their establishment temporarily closed. If they do not subsequently change their policies, businesses may even be permanently closed down. Distributors of plastic bags, meanwhile, will be obliged to submit reports on the rational use and recycling of bags in their inventory. A list of further plastics will remain in use until 2030, including containers, disposable plates and cutlery, confetti and stickers for fruit.

In other ecological news, the Environment Ministry has announced the construction of a new National Herbarium, the home of the country's plant collections, which currently hold 630,000 specimens of plant, fungi and lichen. The collections preserve seeds, fruits, leaves and other components to analyse and research the species with the aim of conserving them. Colombia is facing population decline. according to new demographic data from the Government Statistics Agency. The country has seen a record fall in the number of births in the last year, from 574,000 in 2022 to 510,000 in 2023, a reduction for the sixth consecutive year and the sharpest drop on historical record at 11%.

The number of births continued to drop between January and April of this year, with a 14.

6% decrease compared to the same period last year. In 2014,, women were having 1.8 children on average, in 2023, it was 1.2.. The number of immigrants coming to Colombia is also falling, meaning the population as a whole faces major shifts in coming years, potentially with the issues and strains on public services which an ageing population has already been seen to bring to countries like Italy. Debate continues around the President's proposal of a Constituent Assembly, a new body with powers to alter the constitution. President Gustavo Petro continues to push on with the idea, seeking a preparatory national agreement, based on the principles announced this week, of education, health and pensions as universal rights, territorial development, agrarian reform and peace.

New Interior Minister, Juan Fernando Cristo announced this week that he will seek out different political sectors to build consensus. Former President Ernesto Samper has come out in support of the idea, while the last three Presidents, Iván Duque, Juan Manuel Santos and Álvaro Uribe, have come out in strong opposition, concerned about the uncertainty the Assembly might create. Meanwhile, tension between Petro and the press has reached new heights. Hundreds of journalists this week signed a letter asking the President to de-escalate his criticisms and attacks on the press, particularly via ex-formerly Twitter, on which platform he regularly accuses journalists of committing slander or lying.

The letter acknowledges that journalism is facing a crisis of confidence, but signatories remind the President that it is not up to him to determine what is good and what is bad journalism. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights even expressed concern this week about the President's stigmatising of journalists who criticise both him and allies, like Laura Sarabia, currently embroiled in a corruption scandal. After Petro referred to Mossad journalism in response to a column on Sarabia by María Jimena Duzán, the Commission, as well as national press freedom group, The Flip, spoke out. The Flip, La Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa, said that the President is putting journalists at risk and misinforming the public. Petro has also announced that he is again suing former President Andrés Pastrana for an opinion publicly stated against him.

This follows another lawsuit against Pastrana last year, on that occasion for libel and slander. And the situation regarding the border with Panama continues to look complicated. New right-wing Panamanian President, José Raúl Molino, has now closed the border in three places across the Darien Gap, with reports of militarisation and barbed wire appearing in the area. The US earlier this month committed to pay for the deportation of migrants arriving in Panama through the Darien Jungle from Colombia. The heavy-handedness of the approach risks bottlenecks in Colombia as well as a growing illegal business in people smuggling, currently dominated by the Clan del Golfo, who are now expected to charge more for increasingly dangerous routes across the border.

Those were your headlines for this week, thanks for listening. More from me next week, but in the meantime, I did want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported this news briefing by subscribing. This month marks four years since I started doing the Colombia briefing, and I'm really so grateful to everyone who has signed up. And for those not signed up yet, good news, it is in no way too late. Head to my Substack, where I'm currently doing a four-week free trial to celebrate the briefing's fourth birthday.

That's substack.

com forward slash at e-h-a-r-t. Or head to the Colombia Calling Patreon, where you can also subscribe and get the week's top stories as audio and text every Monday. That is all from me for now. Have a great week.

Small-level, low-level, community-level coffee production. I'm, of course, talking about Native Root. Now you'll know, you'll remember, Irvin Liz, who is from Cauca and is the director and owner of Native Root, is on the line, as well as Simon Winograd, who is now, it's a new title, the director of impact of Native Root. So together, they're working towards getting low-level, community-based and produced coffee out there into the world. They have lots of news to share with us.

News about Cauca, news about the coffee, the projects, the products, and so on. In fact, I'm quite excited to talk to them. So, Irvin and Simon, welcome back, both of you together on the Colombia Calling podcast.

You started with, it was called, I think it was the Columbia Coffee Connection or something of the nature. You obviously were being educated overseas. You speak perfect English. So we've been able to build on this friendship and talk about coffee and where you come from. So just tell us, Native Root.

Tell us what's going on and what's new.

And then, in 2021, with the help of some guys from the U.

S.

, we rebranded into Native Root Coffee, after which the company became a family-owned business. So all of my siblings, my parents, they are all part owners of the company along with me. And we have been on a growth process, quite interesting. At the beginning, of course, we were working with just a few farmers. After that, we expanded up until almost 50 farmers.

So that has been quite good. And we have been working on a number of projects, both selling roasted and green coffee inside and outside of Colombia. Things have changed now quite a little bit, which is something that we wanted to share with the audience.

But essentially, you know, everything has been going quite well, and we're very excited to also have Simon come up and join us. He's been a wonderful friend and a great help in different processes. And also just sharing our story inside and outside of Colombia. So, in a short summary, that's where we are, and we're very happy to be here today.

So, Simon, perhaps you can tell us what Director of Impact means.

But the way I understand it is that, you know, instead of obviously, as well as looking at sort of the bottom line of things, the impact that our actions and behaviors and the way we conduct ourselves, how that impacts not just us as an organization, but everyone around us, everyone we work with, everyone we interact with, is basically how I can best summarize it.

And all of that has also aligned with the fact that we were, as we were growing, we were thinking, how can we impact the community beyond the payment? Because, you know, one of the key things that we do is we pay farmers more compared to the market. Usually that goes between 12% and up to 30%, depending on how the market is behaving. But I just, you know, I was listening to a number of podcasts, a number of people who have been in business, who, you know, see business as a way to impact the community, to help the community, to like actually, you know, go beyond just the profits. And so I was always thinking, how can I, more than just a company that buys, you know, coffee at a better price?

And so, with my girlfriend, we were thinking about it. We had been trying to, like, you know, frame something up. And we have been doing a number of things, Richard. I think we have probably spoken about this in the past. You know, we have fundraised.

We have brought a gift to the community. We have built homes. We have just done a number of things of that nature.

And again, as I was thinking about that, you know, we thought that one way to go beyond was to start thinking about, you know, how to include the community in a way that is doable for us. Because from a business perspective, it's very hard to say that,

you know, you can become the business owner as well, you know, or become a shareholder. That formula is not very easy to do. I know that some companies have tried to do that. But for us, at the level where we are, it's not going to be that simple. And so what I thought was, can we, you know, bring in somebody that can look into the community, that can speak with the community, that can understand the community and see?

what needs are. And so that way, we can also do a more goal-oriented work and a mission-oriented work. Because you can do any type of donation. You can, you know, bring gifts. You can do all that.

All of that is nice, but it's better if you can plan ahead, if you can envision where to bring the community to and then create projects around that and start executing them. And so that's where I see, you know, Simon coming in and he's already done that. I mean, he even went to the farm amidst all of the security issues. And, you know, when he was over there, he even, you know, I don't think he witnessed, but he was able to, or he was in Popayan when there was the bombing of the police station. So I am very grateful that nothing happened to him.

But, you know, he is really putting his skin, you know, on the game. Like this is truly something remarkable, because, you know, I am not going to the farm right now just because it's so complicated, the security issues over there. But, you know, seeing Simon's commitment of going to the farm, speaking with some of the neighbors, seeing what, you know, what they are doing, what their needs are. That's kind of like where I see the role going. It's something that has to evolve.

It's something that has to be worked with the community. It's something that has to be taught by the community and guided also with our knowledge and the knowledge of the elders in the community, so that we can bring about some change. Again, that goes beyond just paying farmers better than the market. That's where we're heading. That's where I see Native Root coming in and really doing a major impact.

Something that involves everybody, that listens to everybody, and that works with everybody.

We'll get on to that in a minute.

Simon, you've been involved in coffee and sustainable farming practices, I think, for some time. You're up there in Michigan at the moment. How have people been taking to you talking about native root?

You know, there's some big sort of, you know, local farm to table movements going on. And obviously, everybody understands that, you know, when you're sourcing, you know, dairy or meats or, you know, produce, you can sort of get it more or less locally here in Michigan. A lot of people don't realize that Michigan's like, I think, the third largest agricultural state in the United States, like after California, and, you know, some other states. But there's a lot being produced here in Michigan. And so but everybody understands that, you know, coffee is coming from a much farther off place.

So it's hard to say you're sourcing local coffee. And so, you know, what I feel I've been tasked with. is this essentially this outreach campaign. You know, I'm always talking with people about coffee and, you know, perhaps a bit sort of annoyingly to some. But, you know, I walk into some, you know, sort of boutique, sort of foodie place.

And sure enough, they've got, you know, all locally sourced goods and then they have right above their coffee, you know, something to that extent. Like we're working with this particular importing firm. And I say, oh, you know, who's doing your coffee? And they immediately go into sort of this scripted sense of like, well, we're working with this importing firm. And, you know, I've tried to sort of tone it down in a sense in that I'm not.

I'm not trying to interrogate anybody or sort of, you know, but, you know, I'm curious, you know, like, oh, where's your coffee come from? Who's roasting it? You know, how does this sort of, you know, logistics work? Like these are all questions that have just been presenting themselves for years and years and years. And I'm not saying I'm certainly an expert on any of it, but I do have a pretty solid understanding of it after years of experiencing it in places like Colombia and Mexico.

And so people are, you know, are very open to talk about it, which is good because it's a chance to sort of all learn together. And like we can talk about, you know, more. so further on, you know, just just this, the reality of it, because I don't think anyone fully understands sort of these complex chains, certainly not to the extent of a situation, you know, like in Cauca and in Colombia. And that's sort of one of the advantages or interesting things about Colombia is that with each growing region in Colombia, there's sort of experiencing a different reality. Certainly where I live, in Quindío, which is very sort of Encanto-esque and Disneyland-esque.

And it's very different from a few departments over there in Cauca.

And today, I'm just so happy to see so many people buy whole beans coffee, you know, so they can grind it at home. They can, you know, do the whole process, enjoy it more. And people really are asking today, you know, what is the origin of this, of this product? Who's growing it? All of that stuff is amazing to see, you know, how, in what it's been six years, in six years, you know, the market has changed.

And I think I speak for everybody who is in the industry. I mean, it's just so many people, even people who are older, who generally are harder to change, because, you know, as you get older, you just like your stuff, and that's it. You don't? you don't want to go beyond that. And we have so many people who are older in the 60 plus years, who are like so excited about the coffee and they're like, you know, I want to try this.

I want to taste that. You know, what does this taste like? And the price is also not so much an issue because also, you know, they are. they have been so exposed to so many offerings from different companies. and, you know, producing a specialty coffee is not cheap.

It's very high. It's very tough. It's very time demanding. There are so many layers of expenses involved in the process, you know, the packaging, the roasting, all of that stuff. And so people no longer are asking, like, you know, why is this coffee, you know, priced in such a way?

You know, people are more like, you know, what does this coffee taste like? You know, what experience I'm going to have? Well, you know, that's it. That's it. Much my, my, my taste, you know, profile kind of thing.

And so I really love to see that. And I think it's, it's, it's, it's not just in Colombia. It's it's in many countries that is going this way.

And then that first impact, whatever the sort of bouquet is in my, my palate. And that that's I don't like, you know, fully fully roasted, like medium roast. I think the thing that is, is that what we recommend? Because there's less impurities and full and high roasted. They're hiding the impurities in the coffee beans.

I mean, coffee has so many things that are fantastic for the body. It's been proven. It's been studied, not only, you know, in Colombia. It's been studied in the U.S. It's been studied in Switzerland, which is one of the major countries for for coffee research at like the very scientific level, you know, kind of like looking into it.

What, what does it do? What does it not do?

And how can you, how can you make it better? And so and so. coffee has a lot of medicinal properties that people don't actually get to enjoy when the coffee is roasted so dark. So when you're roasted very, very dark, you're burning away all of that goodness. You basically don't taste anything other than charcoal and damage the oils.

And one one big thing in the industry has been you're roasted very dark so that you can hide away all of the defects, all of the bad taste, because, you know, out there, the commercial coffees, they have, they have everything in it. You know, they have. they have, which is the leftover coffees, you know, the coffees that have been damaged, that are, you know, black in color or that are yellow in color, because you know, they are so acidic, or they have, you know, not been, they have not ripened well. So and so, out there, you're going to have find all of that stuff. And when you, when you, when they roasted that dark, you are not able to taste any of that.

And so they are able to pass any, any any type of material, organic material, as coffee, because sometimes it's not even coffee. Sometimes they put, you know, sometimes they even put in their stuff like, you know, like peas they can put in their peas. Yeah, all of that tastes very similar to coffee, like to coffee when it's like very dark roasted, because it almost tastes like it's a similar charcoal taste. And so you don't, you're not able to differentiate between one bean and the other. That's not a very unusual practice within the massive industry.

So a lot of people are not even drinking coffee. And so that's why they get sick. That's why they get, you know, their stomach ulcers. That's why they get. that's why the doctor says don't drink too much coffee, when actually coffee is a medicine.

So if you are, if you know, if you are out there and you have this issue, I will recommend for you to, you know, just go and research the. you know, all of the information that is out there about coffee and all of the good stuff that it has. And there are a lot of information. There is a lot of information in very solid scientific journals. So you can, you know, look at it and convince yourself basically.

I used to drink liters of the stuff, but good stuff. Let me get that straight right away. And we won't name the obvious international brands that I know do high roasting to hide the impurities and to buy massive, yes, suspect crops of coffee. We need to move on a little bit because we've had the good stuff, you know, native root. We've talked about the rebranding.

I know you've got a new website up that makes it easier for people within Colombia to buy directly from you. And, as you say, 12 to 30 percent of that purchase goes back into the community. That's a high percentage. That's a high percentage. There are no middlemen.

It's Irvin and Simon, no middlemen. It's directly through these two. And it goes back into the communities in Cauca. And why is this so important right now? Because Cauca is, well, traditionally there have been issues with the conflict in Cauca because it's a strategically located department in Colombia's southwest, coca growing areas, and not so much in Cauca, but, of course, the transportation through the department to the Pacific coast, which now, today, means also arms smuggling and anything else you can think of.

that's, unfortunately, the illegal economies within Colombia. Cauca is very much affected. And this is why we need projects and businesses of this type to continue to invest into small and small communities to improve the quality of life, because, from what I've known from talking to Irvin and others about it, recruitment of children by illegal armed groups, regardless of whichever ones they are, is on the increase. And that is obviously an absolute tragedy. State presence is usually pretty ineffective in areas so geographically diverse as Cauca as well.

And I just thought I'd jump in with Simon here, because you've been down to the farms and you've been down to the coffee growing areas.

Did you feel that the people are very much under the cosh of these illegal armed groups? Because I know we've got the ELN there, the National Liberation Army. I know that there's the FARC, EMC or Nueva Marquetalia, whatever they call themselves now. And I know there's other dissidences and probably the Clan del Golfo, you know, sort of post paramilitary, new organized armed group is there as well. Simon, what can you tell us from your experiences down there?

I know they have somewhat of a, you know, muddled sort of reputation. But, you know, in terms of our work, they were, you know, very integral. And so, you know, I've spent years in that region. I don't proclaim to be an expert by any means, but I do have a level of experience there and which I think is, you know, aided in Irvin and I, sort of pairing together and me understanding the region. And so, you know, but I still am forever going into it with this sort of open, you know, mind is how to how, how I can understand it more.

And, you know, the way I see it, you know, there I was on the farm with the family, you know, sitting at the, in the dining room, with the family, at the dinner table and thinking, you know, you know, my job is essentially easy. Here I am surrounded by, you know, three generations worth of coffee farming knowledge. You know, we've got Juliet, the sister, you know, a brilliant agronomist. You know, we've got Jackie, you know, skilled barista and all sorts of other facets of coffee. And then, you know, the parents, even the next generation of, you know, nephews and nieces growing up in the farming life.

And, you know, all I basically have to do is listen, you know, and learn. And so I feel very fortunate and grateful to be surrounded by such great wealth and just such great people. And then hopefully add, you know, my little bit of experience and knowledge and worth into that to develop some of these projects. We have been talking about sort of these projects and how we can develop them and such. And it's, it's, it's quite fun.

And but honestly, this, you know, this time around at the farm, I personally didn't get a sort of sense of the, you know, the the urgency of the situation that could have just been, you know, it was sort of in like a lull period or just the fact that the, the family and the community kept me so close by that I felt, you know, completely safe at all times. It's not to say that, you know, these situations weren't occurring by any means. I mean, apparently when I was at a nearby bus stop, there was a very serious incident that happened nearby. But I was somewhat oblivious to. But then, like Irvin says, literally when I arrived into Popayán, they had that awful, you know, drone attack on the police station.

And I've been going to Popayán for years as well. That certainly never heard of anything like that. So that is alarming, that these sort of newer sort of tactics are being utilized, which I think is something of concern.

But, you know, I think it's, it's also what I understand I've been sort of tasked with is conveying that that story of, you know, what's going on in Cauca and how it affects, you know, the coffee moving from the farm there in that particular part of Cauca to the capital city of Bogotá and just the, you know, talk about sort of complex supply chains. I mean, you're not only navigating just, you know, hundreds of kilometers of, you know, sort of poor infrastructure, but, you know, navigating these other factors, whether it's, you know, just just just the things that are that are occurring there. It needs to be communicated again in a way that's sort of not to be, you know, an alarmist or or sort of, you know, solicit, pity or anything. But it's the reality, you know, your coffee is coming from a very sort of unique position and geographical location. And it deserves to be appreciated such and ultimately paid more for.

And so, you know, that's essentially what I'm doing here in the U.

S. is an outreach campaign. And, like I said, it's being received really well because I'm surrounded by farmers here in northern Michigan who understand that, you know, these crops are very dependent on things like the weather. Sometimes there's good crops, sometimes there's bad crops. It's all up to these other factors that are very much a lot of the time out of the farmer's hands.

But, you know, again, just to just to have that, that that wealth of knowledge and three generations worth of coffee knowledge is just, you know, invaluable.

And, you know, we, Irvin and I have talked about, you know, sort of sharing this knowledge, whether it's with projects, you know, we were involved with in Chiapas, Mexico. And, you know, I've been, I've been involved in some really cool events or the bringing together of all these different producers. I'm thinking of one in particular in Guatemala, where we had producers from from there. We had producers from Mexico, Guatemala, from Nicaragua, from, you know, all over Latin America. And it was just a time to meet, you know, discuss, you know, latest trends, best practices in agriculture and dreams, challenges, everything.

And just, you know, like, how cool is it to be walking through a coffee farm in Guatemala with a guy from Cauca, from a cooperative that Irvin and I are both familiar with, called Juan Lopez, a farmer from Guatemala. And I remember Freddie from from from Cauca sort of showing the farmer from Guatemala, sort of the sort of specific pruning processes that they would do in Cauca. And, you know, something as simple as, you know, for for someone like me, who doesn't have much of a green thumb at all, it just looks like, oh, you're just cutting, you know, the branch here. But no, it was a very sort of specific cut and very meticulous. And and, and the Guatemalan farmer could see that immediately and see the difference that it would make.

So just stuff like that, I think, is very cool and something that, you know, needs deserves to be celebrated. And the story told, I think I think that's it, isn't it?

I know it's going to be a roaring success. Irvin, we, you just come back from Cauca and it will get past the negatives as we wind down. But it was unnerving. I think the situation is really quite terrible.

when people refuse to pay. They will burn the trucks or they will steal the trucks, along with everything in it. So, you know, situations like that. But, you know, we're Colombians. And even amidst that, we continue to work.

We continue to to dream and to try and do something for for the community. You know, I believe in my particular case, I was called to, you know, do an impact within my community. And that's basically what I'm going to be continued. That's what I'm going to continue to work on, regardless of the of the situation. I think that my family feels the same.

You know, they are, they are out there. We have to. we have to start, you know, thinking in different ways to do business. We have to figure something different, just because we also don't want to, you know, expose our lives. But the idea is to to continue working with the, with the farming community.

The idea is to continue, you know, I guess, learning and then trying to see what exactly we can do to bring about change in even in our small community out there. So, yeah, things like that have been happening in terms of security, which has also, I should mention, a change, the structure of what we were doing. One of the big things for us was selling green coffee. Unfortunately, we're not going to be able to continue doing that, much of that, just because it's not. it's not been easy to source the coffee because of the security issues.

And the more you source or the more you do business, the more you are exposed to, you know, having any of these people. And it could be any number of them coming over and trying to, you know, also ask for their cut, you know, to to, to ask for extortion for from us. And, you know, the businesses are very socially driven business. And so, you know, for us to to, to have to, you know, pay, extortion will be just deadly, basically, as a business, just because we're we're, we're paying so much more for the, for the coffees. And it's always been about working with the community, not so much about making a making a profit.

And so and so. that's basically what concerns us, concerns us a lot. And so because of that, we have to change our our initial, you know, sales strategy and then just basically start selling mainly just roasted coffee as a way to add more value to the product that is coming out of there. We had one last shipment this year. I don't think we're going to be sending any more coffee for the rest of the year just because of the security issues.

And so we are well stocked. But it's very unfortunate that we have to base our decisions on somebody else who only wants to do harm and only wants, you know, to take care of their own interest. And that is the situation. And so it really is. it really is a very frustrating.

It's a very sad situation that we were doing very well. We were going on. We were growing. We were going on a growth path quite nicely. And the idea, you know, this year we brought a number of buyers that were going to send coffee to Europe.

The idea was to actually expand the buying process and and get to buy from 100 farmers. We already had, you know, people going over there. They love their coffee. They were, they were planning to be right around this time buying coffee over there at the farm. And we were going to install a coffee quality lab so to taste the coffee right there at the farm and then and then do a differentiation of the of the quality and also pay the farmers more for the quality.

All of that had to be halted. And so it's it's a very, again, sad situation. And I mainly get worried just about the farmers, because, you know, they are going to have to continue selling the product at a very low price. And besides that, you know, the gorillas, they are even asking now for extortion to the farmers. And, you know, from what I heard, they are asking for one hundred and fifty thousand Colombian pesos for every carga, which is one hundred and twenty five kilos, which is something like close to three hundred pounds.

They are asking that much, which is generally what farmers, you know, kind of like make us a profit out of that much coffee. Right. And so and so when, when you start seeing that, it's like, you know, it's just. you know, these are despicable people. They, they, they don't have any any level of how would you say that consciousness?

There is nothing. there is nothing out there. And so it's, it's a, it's a very bad situation. And that's basically a number of the things that we are, that we are dealing with. And and, and so we have to learn to navigate the new situation, the new security risks that we have over there.

You know, as per usual, things always end up, you know, getting better at some point. So that's our hope. Our hope is that things will change eventually and that we will go back and continue to work with the community, because one of the big ways to make the impact is, of course, buying, buying the coffee direct from the farmers and then sending it to customers outside, which is what we're planning to do this year. We had big projections and all of that basically had to be had to be stopped. You know, even our internal sales, you know, our internal sales were of green coffee was about 40 percent.

All of that was cut down. And so we're trying to switch into, into into selling just rusted coffee as a way to recoup, as a way, to, you know, add more value to the, to the, to the product. And so also to do that, and as you already mentioned, Richard, we just renewed our website. Our website is looking fantastic. We did a great job at renewing the website.

The site is right now only available for sales in Colombia. We cannot take orders from outside of the country. We can, however, take orders from outside of the country via WhatsApp or via email. So if you are interested in buying our coffees, just make sure to go to our website, NativeRootCoffee.com. And then over there, you will find all of our information, our contact.

And so, yeah, so so that's that's basically what we had to change, how we are adapting to the situation. And of course, Simon is helping us with all of this process as well, you know, trying to get new new buyers of roasted coffee, which, at an international level, is not very easy, because a lot of people have this misconception. And this is all based out of not the reality. A lot of people think that, you know, buying coffee from from roasted at the origin is going to arrive at their place at an, you know, with another not a very good quality, when in fact, you know, where it's faster to ship something from Colombia, to, say, a country like the U.S. or Canada, than it is to send anything within the U.S.

You know, we have shipping, shipping, shipping times that are two to three business days, and sometimes one to two business days, you know, and at a very good prices as well. So so so we can send coffees to a lot of countries at a very at a very fast, you know, rate and also with very good shipping, shipping times. And so, basically, that's, that's again, that's where we are. That was kind of like one of the big announcements, our new website. So make sure to go and visit us and go check out what we have available over there.

And yeah, that's, that's pretty much where we are.

Every little bit helps these communities suffering down there in Cauca. And Irvin and Simon are doing a noble, good work to try and improve the situation in this area. And that's all I can really, if I can impress that upon you all out there, native root coffee dot com. Simon Chief, what do I call you again? Director of Impact.

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts up there in northern Michigan and Irvin, director and director of Native Root Coffee, as always, so eloquent and also so important. You're, you're, you're what you're mentioning about the situation in Cauca. So hopefully we can drive you a few purchases. I don't promise to make you rich through the Columbia Calling podcast, but there will be a few purchases. Native Root Coffee dot com within Columbia.

But on the website, you can find WhatsApp and email if you want to buy overseas. These guys, they are very efficient and driven. So that's what we need. Here's the kind of thing we're doing. So thank you to you both for coming.

Also, Substack for Emily Hart. Just Google it. You can follow her news and Columbia briefings there. Please don't go away. Listen to some messages from our sponsors.

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