the huila region:
a wealth of resources
Environmental service to the country
Huila's strategic importance in the Colombian context lies in being a region where a vast amount of water is generated. Huila is part of the Colombia Massif, a UNESCO Biosphere reserve covering 4 departments of Southwest Colombia where the Andes separate into two mountain ranges (central and eastern) and where 5 of Colombia’s main rivers are born: Northward run the Magdalena and Cauca rivers, the Patía flows toward the Pacific; the Caquetá and Putumayo head southeast to meet the Amazon. This reserve provide a huge environmental service to Colombia, holding more than 70% of the country’s freshwater and an impressive source of biodiversity.
The proximity of the Pacific ocean and the Amazon plain on both extremities of the Colombian massif shapes unique ecosystems. In the rugged landscape of steep slopes, valleys, and large rivers that emerge and branch out from this intricate geography, a generous and fertile space is created for agricultural activity. The exceptional conditions found in the Massif, with soils enriched by volcanic ash and the organic matter carried by the rivers that nourish the land, foster high-quality crops. So much so that today, the 4 departments of the Colombian Massif - Huila, Tolima, Cauca, and Nariño - have coffees with a designation of origin, renowned for their unique flavor and aroma profiles.
The coffee from Huila
Terroir represents a delimited geographical area where a human community, over the course of history, has developed a collective production know-how. It is the crossroads between nature and men. What is Huila terroir like?
The narrowness of the Magdalena Valley in the Huila department, combined with the high humidity and cloud cover caused by winds from the Orinoquía and Amazon regions that cross the lowlands of the Eastern Andes, results in a decrease in average temperatures. This directly impacts the unique attributes of Huila's coffee.
As described in the Appellation of Origin “Cafe de Huila”: the limited sunlight in the region, averaging 1,260 hours per year – about 3.5 hours per day – creates a natural shade that encourages the accumulation of chemical precursors (lipid content and chlorogenic acids) which positively contribute to the coffee's flavor profile.
Coffee arrived in Huila in the mid-19th century. At the time, Huila’s farmers were marginalized from national progress due to an isolated way of life in the rugged terrain of the Massif, lacking roads and railways, and facing serious communication challenges. In this context, coffee "colonization" emerged in the region as a development alternative to improve the well-being of its inhabitants.
The National Coffee Federation (FNC) overcame topographical barriers by building transportation routes that allowed coffee to be transported from the mountain slopes to municipal markets. Since the 1960s, Huila’s coffee farmers have organized themselves through cooperatives to protect their quality of life.
Today, 74% of Huila’s rural population is dedicated to coffee farming, and 53% of the department’s exports consist of coffee. This history has fostered a strong coffee-growing culture, rich in expertise in cultivation, processing, and marketing.
CLIMATE
PEOPLE
Huila is the #1 coffee producing region of Colombia, accounting for 18% of national coffee production.
The Huila department is widely recognized both in Colombia and internationally as the country’s largest coffee region by volume, while also being known for cultivating a significant amount of specialty-grade coffee, typically grown on small farms averaging 3-4 hectares.
The FNC data shows that the surface of area cultivated with coffee in Huila grew from 82K hectares in 2003 to 148K in 2023, an 80% increase while the total surface cultivated with coffee in Colombia decreased by 3% over the same period. This clearly shows the recent investment of the Huila region in coffee.
Surface with coffee in thousands of hectares