[Note: More pictures in original artcle.]

Bolivia's Best Kept Secret: Andean Coffee
September 14, 2015 - telesurtv.net

For the first time in decades Bolivia is ramping up production and getting serious about marketing its coffee internationally.

Bolivia has some of the best-tasting, organic coffee in the world. In fact, it's something of a secret among coffee connoisseurs.

But a chronic lack of investment in the industry for the past 20 years badly hit production levels. Less beans were sent for export, leaving Bolivia´s reputation as a coffee producer in tatters.

Now all that's about to change.

For the first time in decades Bolivia is ramping up production and getting serious about marketing its coffee internationally.

For most of the 1990's Bolivia experienced something of a boom in production. But the global coffee crisis back in 2002 hit the industry hard.

Prices fell as low as $0.40 and most farmers in the rural coffee producing region of the Yungas couldn't cover the production costs.

A lack of basic infrastructure and technology to process beans left Bolivia lagging behind the rest of its coffee producing neighbours.

The market practically collapsed and in a double blow, years of unsustainable farming practices destroyed much of the mineral rich soil that's needed to grow the plants.

"The earth in Bolivia was tired, pretty much exhausted so production levels have remained low since the 1990's," according to Gumercinda Mamani, a producer of sustainably grown coffee. "Now we are increasing production and taking better care of the land and the soil to improve the quality and grow more beans but sustainably this time."

In La Paz more speciality coffee houses are opening to cater for the growing demand for high quality organic coffee.

And while most of the population sips the most popular beverage, "mate de coca" or coca tea, there's been a trend among the growing middle classes to opt for high-quality coffee.

Leny Miranda Guzman owns a gourmet café in La Paz.

"We've noticed a big demand for locally sourced coffee from Bolivians and foreigners. So much so that we've expanded our range and are in the process of exporting some of our best beans to France and Belgium and even to Chicago in the U.S.," Guzman said.

The official target is to increase exports from the current levels of 40,000 sacks of Bolivian beans every year to more than 350,000 bags by 2020.

This could boost the local economy by more than US$300 million dollars.

It seems one of Bolivia's best kept secrets won't be a secret for much longer.

This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address:
"http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Bolivias-Best-Kept-Secret-Andean-Coffee-20150914-0022.html".