Colombian coffee brand Juan Valdez will accelerate its global expansion, capitalizing on record-high coffee prices and strong harvests in the country.
President of Procafecol Camila Escobar, owner of Juan Valdez, made the announcement during the annual Ibero-American Business Alliance Congress in Seville, attended by more than 500 business leaders. She noted that Arabica and Robusta coffee prices have doubled over the past two years, which has been good news for Colombia’s 548,000 coffee-growing families.
“Not only are we seeing excellent prices, but we’re also harvesting record volumes,” Escobar said. Last year, Colombia produced nearly 14 million 60-kilogram bags of unroasted green coffee, a 23 percent increase over 2023. At current rates, that output is worth 16 trillion Colombian pesos (about $3.5 billion), the highest value in the country’s history.
Juan Valdez takes advantage of Brazil and Vietnam’s productive decline to continue its global expansion
Procafecol, financed by the country’s parafiscal coffee fund set up almost 100 years ago, uses those proceeds to support growers and maintain Juan Valdez as a national brand. “Juan Valdez is not a private brand,” Escobar said. “It’s a symbol of our coffee quality worldwide.”
With global demand surging, led by new consumers in China and shifting habits in Western markets, supply constraints in Brazil and Vietnam have pushed prices even higher. In Brazil, the world’s top producer, frost and drought have slashed output. Vietnam and Indonesia, the second and fourth largest exporters, have also suffered from severe dry spells.
Procafecol reported a 45 percent rise in operating profit for 2024 and a 9 percent jump in revenue to 743 billion pesos (about €160 million). Net income stood at 12.4 billion pesos ($2.6 million).
Juan Valdez has more than 600 cafés all over the world
Juan Valdez operates across all retail channels, with 630 branded cafés worldwide and more than 15,000 mass-market points of sale in Colombia. Some 370 cafés are in Colombia; the other 260 outlets span 20 countries, primarily in Latin America.
Escobar identified the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Spain, and the Middle East as “exponential growth markets.” She announced a partnership with Grupo Trinity, Colombia’s largest Spanish-market investor, to open 140 new Juan Valdez cafés in Spain over the next seven years. Trinity, led by Cartagena businessman Omar González, holds an 80 percent stake in the joint operation.
“We’re thrilled by the close relationship between Spanish and Colombian coffee drinkers,” she said, adding, “Spain can serve as our beachhead for wider European expansion.” Under the franchise model, local investors will fund most new shops. The first European airport store, at Palma de Mallorca airport, opens this week, marking the brand’s seventh location in Spain. Juan Valdez’s previous Spanish operations, with the first one being in 2007 and again after the pandemic, fell short due to economic decline, but executives say the new agreement builds on a stabilized foundation of six established cafés.
“In five years, we expect to triple our sales and significantly boost profitability,” Escobar said. The expansion comes as Colombian coffee, often lauded for its smooth Arabica beans, cements its status as a global premium product. “Coffee has become the new black gold,” Escobar said, summing up the industry’s golden moment.