Santa Marta coffee shipments suspended after cocaine seizure

31st March 2008

Coffee shipments from the Caribbean port of Santa Marta in late March were suspended after the discovery of 100 kg of cocaine hidden in a consignment of coffee bound for Antwerp, a Dow Jones report said.

The National Federation of Coffee Growers (Fedecafe) said that it would not export any more coffee through Santa Marta until the incident had been investigated and measures taken to prevent further occurrences, the report added.

Fedecafe directly exports about 20% of Colombia’s coffee, and the cocaine was discovered in a Fedecafe shipment, according to the report.

In the last crop year, 2.4% of the country’s coffee shipments went through Santa Marta, as opposed to 51% via the Caribbean port of Cartagena (pictured) and 46% through the Pacific harbour at Buenaventura.