Bogota, April 16 - Colombia's Juan Valdez chain of coffee shops has signed a deal to open about 17 stores in Ecuador and begin distribution of its beans through a local supermarket chain, the National Federation of Coffee Growers, or Fedecafe, said Tuesday.
The deal was reached between Ecuador's Latincafe group and Procafecol S.A., the holding company set up to manage the Juan Valdez brand and the coffee shop chain run under the name of the logo, famous for its smiling coffee grower seen together with his mule.
Procafecol is 83.9% owned by Fedecafe, and 15.19% of all shares are owned by small Colombian coffee farmers, according to Fedecafe figures.
"Coffee is a symbol of the union and closeness that exists between Ecuador and Colombia, so to the Ecuadorians we will say 'since we are friends, let's drink Colombian coffee'," Fedecafe's general manager said in a statement.
The entry into the Ecuadorian market forms part of the Juan Valdez chain's "International Expansion Plan" that has outlined a series of strategies for expansion in both the domestic and international markets.
Since opening its first shop in 2002, the chain has expanded aggressively, and currently operates 100 Juan Valdez shops in Colombia, 11 in the U.S., seven in Spain and one in Chile.
The Juan Valdez coffee blends are distributed through supermarket chains in Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Mexico.
As well as managing the Juan Valdez shops, Procafecol sells refills for "single cup servings" known as coffee pods, a range of "cafe colas," coffee extracts, coffee candies, and roasted and ground coffee to supermarkets.
Procafecol's expansion into Ecuador comes at a time of high political tension between Colombia and Ecuador.
On April 13, the Colombian government issued a statement accusing Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa of blocking operations by Ecuador's military against Colombian leftist guerrillas in Ecuadorian territory.