The fruits of the Hotelex International Fair, which took place last December in Guangzhou, China, and in which coffee and cocoa producers from different regions of Colombia participated, are already being seen. Several of them are doing business with traders from the Asian giant.
Members of producer associations from departments such as Antioquia, Caldas, Cesar, Cordoba, Cundinamarca, Huila, Quindio, Risaralda, and Tolima have received guidance on requirements for exporting to the Chinese market, necessary documentation and procedures, product quality, traceability and presentation, commercial relations and international negotiation, as well as entry into the Asian market and its opportunities.
Dreams fulfilled and dreams yet to be fulfilled
One of those coffee producers is María Yineth Morales Barreto, a farmer from Rovira, Tolima, a nurse with a master’s degree in Project Management who dedicated herself to coffee growing with her siblings. Last year she reached an agreement with a Chinese client to sell her entire 2026 harvest, and she has already sent the first 100 kilograms under her Tres Marías brand.
“The Foreign Ministry opened the call to take coffee growers to China; I registered and was selected. It was like seeing the light in the middle of chaos, because our production is influenced by variables such as the climate and the dollar, and having an opportunity like that was very valuable. I went to the Hotelex fair, where I was able to showcase my coffee and do business,” Morales said, quoted in Semana magazine.
She also recounted that during the fair she met a businessman who became interested in her coffee, invited her to Chengdu to meet his work team and family, and they tried her coffee using different methods. “Once the agreement with the gentleman was confirmed, I entered an internationalization route with the Foreign Ministry and ProColombia. There they taught me about surcharges, tariffs, and customs, things I had absolutely no idea about.”
While Morales has already managed to send her first 100 kilograms of coffee to China, other women are in the process of fulfilling that dream, such as Lina Rubio, a social psychologist, producer, and member of Procord, from Córdoba, Quindío, who also attended Hotelex and saw the export possibilities that exist. “Being in China and realizing that people abroad, who do not know we exist, like our coffee, is gratifying.”
Momentum of the Coffee and Cocoa Route
But the deals have not yet been finalized. “The Chinese were going to visit us in March to conduct negotiations, but because of the war they have not been able to come. So, in the meantime, we are working among ourselves to improve the shortcomings we identify and manage to export to China as a small association. Hopefully the Government fulfills the support it promised us,” Rubio said.
Both the fulfilled dreams and those still waiting to become reality are framed within the Coffee and Cocoa Route through which the National Government seeks to dignify the incomes of rural farming families through the opening of new markets, the strengthening of productive capacities, and the reduction of intermediaries in export processes.
The Coffee and Cocoa Route began implementation in December 2025, following an open call in which 18 companies of small and medium-sized producers that met the established requirements were selected. These organizations had the opportunity to exhibit their products and establish commercial contacts at the Hotelex International Fair, one of the main scenarios of the hotel and gastronomy sector in Asia.
Among the participating companies are associations and brands from various regions of the country, reflecting the productive and cultural diversity of Colombian coffee and cocoa, and the role these sectors play in processes of rural development, peace, and solidarity economy.