Back in September 2019, I received an email from someone telling me about his company and how it sources coffee from conflict zones in Colombia. Conflict zones? I was never familiar with that term but I was a little familiar with the history of Colombia's problems with guerilla's and drug cartels. My assumption of coffee coming from areas where this kind of turmoil exists was right on. That's how I was introduced to Luis Carlos Sossa, or how he introduced himself. Luis is the founder of Cosecha Traders, a company that exports specialty coffee grown from regions in Colombia that are known conflict zones.
On this episode of "Coffee Chronicles: Stories Over Coffee", I interview Luis with the curiosity of how he got started in coffee. This interview was done over Zoom because Luis is currently running his company in Colombia and I'm in New York. His story of growing up in Fairfax, VA before making the move to Colombia intrigued me because it is a move not many make after an immigrant family establishes themselves in the United States.
Besides his coffee story, I was curious to learn on how Colombia has handled the spread of COVID-19. This pandemic is really affecting the whole world and being in New York is just a small dot on the map to where this virus has sprouted. Also, I wanted to know how this will affect the coffee trade. With Colombia being the 3rd largest producer of coffee in the world, I was curious on how coffee production would be affected by sickness and imposed quarantines.
Luis's passions is displayed in his coffee but most importantly he shows his passion in helping others and that's why he reached out to Black 6. He was looking for other organizations that shared a social mission along with their love for coffee. Listening to this podcast you can hear the passion in his voice. I've met Luis personally and I've heard that passion first hand and that's why I thought I'd share his story on how he has risked his life on numerous occasions to move coffee past the military and drug cartels just to help coffee growers legitimize their community. Cosecha Traders does this by bringing their exceptional coffee to the United States where many will pay top dollar for the quality coffee. I hope you enjoy his story in this podcast and to find more information on him you follow him on Facebook @cosecha.traders
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