Cundinamarca

Cundinamarca, the department that surrounds Bogotá in central Colombia, was once one of the country’s biggest coffee producers. Coffee took hold on its large haciendas in the mid-19th century, the FNC’s coffee atlas says, and for decades the department was one of Colombia’s leading producers and exporters. Today it grows coffee on both slopes of the Eastern range, mostly under shade, in 69 municipalities, and its harvest calendar flips between north and south.

The short version

• Spiced, sweet and fruity in the cup, with medium citric acidity.
• About 1,100–1,900 m.
• 61% shade-grown.
• Two calendars: main harvest September–December in the north, March–June in the south.
• 29,129 hectares in 2024.

What does Cundinamarca coffee taste like?

The FNC’s official regional profile describes a sweet, spiced aroma, sweet, fruity flavours, medium, citric acidity and a medium, juicy body. The FNC’s coffee atlas, written with the national research centre Cenicafé, says the cup contrasts between east and west: from mild coffee with nutty notes to high acidity, panela (raw cane sugar) notes and character. It credits the shade, which covers 61% of the coffee, with giving the cup distinctive flavour, body and aroma. Cundinamarca has no denomination of origin of its own.

Where and how high is it grown?

The atlas places the coffee zone at 1,100 to 1,900 metres, with an average temperature of 19.7 °C, and groups its 69 municipalities into four subregions:

Subregion	Share of coffee area	Includes
Centre	38.2%	Fusagasugá, La Mesa, Viotá, Tena, Silvania
North-west	29.9%	La Palma, Pacho, Yacopí, Sasaima, La Vega
West	25.2%	Guaduas, Villeta, Quipile, Vianí
East	6.7%	Cáqueza, Choachí, Fómeque, Gachalá, Medina

Source: Atlas Cafetero de Colombia (FNC and Cenicafé), figures to 30 September 2017.

Shade is heaviest in the West, at 84%. 78% of the coffee area was planted with rust-resistant varieties bred by Cenicafé, and 98.7% of growers had less than 5 hectares of coffee.

When is it harvested?

That depends on where you are, the atlas says:

Part of the department	Main harvest	Mitaca	Split
North	September–December	April–May	70% / 30%
South	March–June	October–November	70% / 30%

So between the two, Cundinamarca has fresh coffee coming in for much of the year.

How much coffee does Cundinamarca grow?

Figure	Value	Source
Area, 2024	29,129 ha	FNC coffee information system, via Agronegocios
Area, 2017	35,711 ha, in 69 municipalities	Atlas Cafetero de Colombia
Growers, 2017	30,087, with their families	Atlas Cafetero de Colombia
Jobs	About 100,000 direct and indirect	Atlas Cafetero de Colombia

Coffee was the department’s second crop by area when the atlas was written. Its coffee growers’ committee was set up in Bogotá on 19 December 1928, a year after the FNC itself.

Cundinamarca and other Colombian origins

• Coffee in Colombia: the whole country, its harvests and its figures.
• Boyacá: its neighbour to the north-east, almost all shade-grown.
• Tolima: one of Colombia’s biggest coffee departments.