Norte de Santander

Norte de Santander, in the north-east of Colombia on the border with Venezuela, is where Colombia’s coffee trade began. Whichever date you believe, 1808 or 1835, the country’s first coffee exports left from here, and the town of Salazar de las Palmas is remembered for a priest who made coffee-planting a penance. Today about 17,140 families grow coffee in 37 municipalities, and the department picks coffee almost all year round. Here’s the story and the figures.

The short version

• Colombia’s first coffee exports, in 1808 or 1835.
• Francisco Romero, the priest who set coffee-planting as a penance.
• Mostly 1,300–1,900 m, with a third of the coffee lower down.
• A harvest almost all year: 55% in the first half, 45% in the second.
• Chocolate in the cup, with medium citric acidity.
• 17,140 families, 2.86% of the national crop.

How did Colombian coffee begin here?

Through the church and the border trade. The sources agree on the place, but not on the date or the size of the first exports:

When	What happened	Source
1787	The archbishop-viceroy Caballero y Góngora reports coffee near Durania and Ragonvalia, in Norte de Santander, and Girón, in Santander	Wikipedia (Spanish)
1808	100 bags of 60 kg exported from the port of Cúcuta	Wikipedia (English)
1835	Salazar de las Palmas sends the first 2,592 bags to Venezuela, across Lake Maracaibo	The departmental coffee growers’ committee, via Perfect Daily Grind
From 1835	Commercial growing in Durania and Salazar de las Palmas	Wikipedia (Spanish)

Francisco Romero, the parish priest of Salazar de las Palmas, is credited with the boom: he is said to have made his parishioners plant coffee as a penance at confession, which spread the crop across both Santanders. Spanish Wikipedia also credits General Justo Leónidas Durán, who after the war invested everything in growing coffee on a large scale at the El Recreo farm in Durania, where his ancestor Juan Durán had brought the first seed to the region. From here, it says, coffee spread to Santander, Cundinamarca, Antioquia and the rest of the country.

What does Norte de Santander coffee taste like?

The FNC’s official regional profile describes a sweet, floral, fruity and chocolate aroma, a bitter-chocolate flavour, medium, citric acidity and a medium, juicy body. The committee’s director, Ricardo Mendoza, told La Opinión that coffee from Toledo tastes different from coffee from Arboledas, Ocaña or Convención. The department has no denomination of origin of its own.

How high is it grown?

The department spans every climate band from warm lowlands to cold páramo moorland, Perfect Daily Grind notes, but its coffee sits in a narrower band. A characterisation study by the departmental coffee growers’ committee, quoted by Perfect Daily Grind, found:

Altitude	Share of the coffee
Below 1,300 m	33.10%
1,300–1,900 m	64.35%
Above 1,900 m	The remaining 2.55%

One grower told Perfect Daily Grind his Geisha farm sits at 1,950 metres, above the band where most of the department’s coffee grows.

When is coffee harvested?

Almost all year, though the sources describe it differently:

Harvest	Source
Almost all year: 55% of production in the first half, 45% in the second	Ricardo Mendoza, director of the departmental committee, in La Opinión (2025)
Main harvest October–December, after early-year drought triggers flowering; some municipalities pick mainly in March and June	Perfect Daily Grind (2021)

How much coffee does it grow?

Figure	Value	Source
Families	17,140, in 37 municipalities (June 2025)	Departmental committee, in La Opinión
Area	About 25,000 ha, in 1,053 rural districts (2025)	Departmental committee, in La Opinión
Area, 2024	23,400 ha	FNC coffee information system, via Agronegocios
Share	2.86% of Colombia’s production	Departmental committee, in La Opinión
Yield	About 7 bags a hectare on 33,600 ha in 2009; 19.3 on 25,000 ha now	Ricardo Mendoza, in La Opinión

Toledo, Arboledas, Salazar, San Calixto and Cucutilla lead production, Mendoza said. Perfect Daily Grind adds that the indigenous Barí community also grows coffee, on a smaller scale.

Norte de Santander and other Colombian origins

• Coffee in Colombia: the whole country, its harvests and its figures.
• Santander: its neighbour, shade-grown and protected since 2014.
• Sierra Nevada: full shade on the Caribbean coast.