Medellín, Colombia · June 28–29, 2027

The voice of the world's coffee producers

Since 2017, the World Coffee Producers Forum has brought together growers, governments, industry and development partners from more than 40 producing countries to secure a prosperous and sustainable future for coffee farming.

Message from the Chair

Each generation better off than the one before

Coffee producers share much more than a crop.From the mountains of Central America and the Andes to the hills of Rwanda, Vietnam and India, millions of families, most of them on small farms, tend the same plant, face the same markets and hold the same hopes for their children. That shared history brought producer organizations from Latin America, Africa and Asia together in 2016 and 2017 to create the World Coffee Producers Forum, a place where the people who grow the world's coffee speak with their own voice.

Consumers today are more discerning than ever.They want to know where their coffee comes from, who grew it and whether it was produced sustainably, and they value what lies behind every cup. That is good news. Yet the families who grow coffee still face serious obstacles to being sustainable and to prospering: volatile prices, production costs that often exceed what they are paid, a changing climate, and farms that too few young people want to inherit.

For the Forum, prosperity has a simple meaning.It is a livelihood that keeps improving, so that the children of coffee farmers are better off than their parents, and their grandchildren better off still. Each generation should live in a better situation than the one before. That is the measure we use for our work.

No one can achieve this alone.Producers must act, and act together with the whole value chain: exporters, importers, roasters and retailers; international cooperation agencies and development banks; universities and civil society; and, very especially, governments, in producing countries and around the world. Our studies with Professor Jeffrey Sachs and our partners have shown that national plans built on the Sustainable Development Goals give everyone a shared roadmap and a way to measure progress.

One gap deserves special attention: technology and connectivity.Young people in coffee regions need internet access, digital education and a real place in a digital economy that keeps growing, now driven forward by artificial intelligence. Closing this gap will help them prosper, on the farm and beyond it. It will also help stop the distance between developed and developing countries from widening further, as it has until now.

International cooperation is essential to overcome the challenges producers face and to secure their prosperity.In recent years that cooperation has become much harder to sustain, for many reasons: political change, wars and economic difficulties in many countries. This is what moved the producer associations that make up the World Coffee Producers Forum to convene the International Cooperation Summit for the Coffee Sector in Medellín in June 2027, ten years after our first meeting in the same city.

In Medellín we will ask a direct question: how do we renew cooperation so that coffee-producing countries, in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and Asia, can build a prosperous future for their farmers?We invite governments, cooperation agencies, industry, civil society and, above all, producers to join us in answering it.

Our history

Organized by producers, for producers

The Forum was born from a simple conviction: the people who grow the world's coffee must have a seat at the table where its future is decided. Most of the world's coffee comes from smallholder families, and for decades many of them have been unable to cover their production costs.

In 2017, producing countries convened the first World Coffee Producers Forum in Medellín, Colombia. Nearly 1,500 participants from more than 40 countries agreed on a shared diagnosis of the sector's challenges and adopted the Medellín Declaration. In 2018 the Forum became a not-for-profit organization.

Later editions in Campinas, Brazil (2019) and Kigali, Rwanda (2023) moved the agenda from diagnosis to action, centered on national plans, grounded in the Sustainable Development Goals, that help producing countries achieve prosperity for their farmers.

Testimonials from producers, leaders and partners of the Forum are coming soon.

Our next meeting · 10th anniversary

International Cooperation Summit for the Coffee Sector

Co-hosted with the Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia, in its centennial year

Ten years after the first Forum, the World Coffee Producers Forum returns to Medellín. Political change, wars and economic strain have weakened international cooperation just as producers need it most. The Summit will bring producers, governments, cooperation agencies, industry and civil society together to renew it.

The Summit

June 28–29, 2027

Medellín, Colombia · [Venue to be announced]

Field trip

June 30, 2027

Colombia's coffee region

The Summit opens the day after the Federación's centennial celebration on June 27, 2027.