Marketing – Colombia takes Juan Valdez coffees to Costa Rica supermarkets

MILAN – Procafecol, the entity in charge of managing the Juan Valdez coffee brand for Colombia’s National Federation of Coffee Growers, will soon start selling some of its products in some of Costa Rica’s largest supermarket chain, local press reports Tuesday.
According to a report in Colombia’s daily El Tiempo, Fedecafe will be the supplier for supermarkets Mas por Menos (owned by Wal-Mart International), Automercado and Perimercado, which are some of the largest supermarkets chains operating in Costa Rica.
The report said that Fedecafe would sell in Costa Rica its Organic, Cumbre and Colina lines, all of which are sold in Colombia through Fedecafe’s Juan Valdez coffee shops.

The news comes as the Federation and Costa Rican roaster Café Britt continue enmeshed in a trademark dispute started when Fedecafe found that Café Britt’s stores sold a T-shirt that read: “Juan Valdez Drinks Costa Rican Coffee.”  The case is now in Costa Rican courts. 
Fedecafe already sells its coffees to Wal-Mart stores in the United States. Wal-mart bought the Mas por Menos supermarket chain two years ago. According to Wal-Mart’s 2006, the Central American region showed the largest profit gains last year.

Although no dates for the first arrival in Costa Rica was released, official announcement is expected later this week by Fedecafe.

Costa Rica produces about 1.9 million 60-kilo bags of coffee, and the country has the second highest per capita coffee consumption amongst world coffee producing countries, behind Brazil.
Colombia producers about 12 million bags of coffee a year, but the country’s per capita consumption is still low compared with other coffee producing countries.
Procafecol manages more than 40 Juan Valdez coffee shops, 11 in the United States and the remainder in Colombia.
(Source: CoffeeNetwork)