Discover how a new pension program changed the lives of Colombian coffee farmers.

In Aguadas, a small and colourful Colombian town perched in the Andes mountains, farmers would sit down at the family dinner table to enjoy a cup of coffee at the end of a tiring day tending their coffee plants. Sometimes the conversation would turn to the future and the children would talk about working in the city to escape the financial insecurity of farming. It wasn’t a conversation the farmers particularly enjoyed. They wanted to pass down their farms and heritage to the next generation.

Keen to improve the welfare of the farmers, we asked them how we could help. The reply was clear. What they most wanted was a pension to help protect their farms, families and futures. At the time, only about seven percent had one.

It’s only available to AAA farmers, one of whom is Delio Gonzalez. “It gives us hope to be able to reach our retirement age; we can rest and enjoy our old age quietly,” he said.

Others, too, see a much brighter future for the Colombian coffee sector since the pension’s launch.

“Our hope is that this will also help the younger generation see coffee farming as a viable career, so preserving this essential part of the Colombian economy and heritage,” said Harriet Lamb, former CEO of Fairtrade International.