Bogota, Feb. 12 - Colombia's National Federation of Coffee Growers, or Fedecafe, on Tuesday inaugurated a $40 million expansion to a freeze-drying coffee plant in the town of Chinchina, in the heart of the country's main coffee region.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe officially opened the plant, which will process around 500,000 bags of coffee per year, approximately 4.5% of Colombia's total annual coffee output, according a Fedecafe statement.
The money for the expansion came from the National Coffee Fund, which is managed by Fedecafe and financed by a levy of six cents per pound of coffee exported. Before the expansion the plant, known as Buencafe-Liofilizado de Colombia, processed around 375,000 bags of coffee per year, according to Fedecafe.
The expansion is part of Colombia's strategy of trying to increase earnings from its coffee harvest by selling products that have "added value" over the basic green beans.
Colombia is the world's largest producer of mild washed arabica coffee, with annual output of between 11 million and 12 million 60-kilogram bags in recent years, and is the third-largest producer overall after Brazil and Vietnam.