New Names Heard to be Shortlisted to Choose New FNC Manager
Bogota (Coffee Network )- New names have been rumored to be shortlisted as three candidates that will be submitted to the National Committee of Coffee growers to head the Colombian coffee growers federation.
Maria Claudia Lacouture, former minister of commerce and incumbent president of the US-Colombia chamber of commerce. Felipe Robayo, former commercial director of FNC, and Luis Enrique Dussan, governor of El Huil,a have been heard to be part of the three shortlisted candidates to head FNC.
The National Committee of Growers must shortlist three candidates. One of them must have the express and favorable vote of the Minister of Finance. An extraordinary coffee summit must be carried out to choose the new FNC manager.
Coffee producing department whose production is higher than 9% of the country’s total output will have six votes during the polling session. Departments with coffee output below 3 and 9% will have three votes and those below 3% of output will have two votes.
But people familiar with the situation said Lacouture lacks knowledge in coffee matters.
Lacouture is a professional in finance and international relations, she has a master's degree in economics and marketing from Cornell University. She had a long career at the government’s promotion office Procolombia. She was the minister of commerce, industry and tourism between May 2016 and August 2017, until she began to hold her current position at AmCham.
People familiar with the situation said some coffee growers are pushing to have an FNC director from the Huila province, Colombia’s coffee-largest producing department. Huila almost 20% of the total coffee production with 144,120 hectares in production.
Profile of Applicants
The coffee growers federation said the election day of the new FNC manager will be announced today, through an open call that will be published on the page www.federaciondecafeteros.org.
The National Coffee Growers committee is comprised by the Finance Minister, the Agriculture Minister, the Commerce Minister and the director of the national planning department. Representatives from each of the 15 coffee departments will also attend. The National Coffee Growers Committee is a joint body that coordinates the country’s coffee policy.
The new FNC manager is appointed by the National Congress of Coffee Growers from a shortlist also approved by the National Committee.
The Minister of Finance and Public Credit, José Antonio Ocampo, highlighted the importance of acting in consensus and that the next general manager must have extensive managerial experience, including knowledge in international trade.
“The manager must have high-level managerial experience, of least a decade in the public or private sector," said Ocampo, who added: “I want to be clear that I see no other way forward on this process but through consensus”.
"The general manager must unite, it is our responsibility, yours as coffee leaders and ours as a government, not to allow under any circumstances that
come back moments that did so much damage to the coffee growers, to the Federation,” he added.
The president of the FNC Steering Committee, Jorge Alberto Posada, recalled the almost hundred-year history of the Federation and stressed that the general manager to be chosen will be the “centennial manager”.
“It is essential that the general manager have a domestic and global vision
to face the national and international challenges that lie ahead and
he has the ability to lead the Federation, upon reaching his first
centenary, to lead the sustainability and prosperity of families
coffee makers, and to continue projecting itself as a model organization at the national and international, even beyond 2027, when the institution
turns 100 years old”, highlighted the union leader.
In December, the general manager of the Colombia’s coffee growers federation has quit after the country’s first leftist president Gustavo Petro requested his resignation.
A recent article said Petro requested the resignation of Roberto Velez after the group lost millions in futures trading.
The Comptroller General’s Office is probing administrative omissions that led to losses of as much as US$120 million, which hurt the National Coffee Fund coffers and many growers and cooperatives, the newspaper El Pais said.
Velez has been the general manager of the coffee growers federation since 2015.
By Diana Delgado
