The Nueva Generación Cafetera (New Generation Coffee Growers, or NGC) program at Cooperandes, the largest cooperative in Colombia, aims to educate, support, and inspire young coffee farmers to stay in the coffee production business and build innovative and successful coffee growing operations. Through the program, Cooperandes is working to both safeguard the future of the coffee industry in Colombia, where the average age of coffee farmers is 57 years of age, and strengthen their supply of quality coffees by working with young producers who are enthusiastic about experimentation in production.

The NGC program offers youth 30 years of age and younger a number of incentives to continue Cooperandes’ proud legacy of coffee farming, including:

• Favorable credit terms
• Technical assistance
• Soil analysis
• Coffee tree renovation and nursery access
• Processing innovations and micro-lot development
  

Only 248 farmers currently qualify for the NGC program at Cooperandes, representing just seven percent of the total farmers that belong to the cooperative.