Coffee growers in Colombia join mass action

Tens of thousands of coffee growers will attempt to bring roads across Colombia to a standstill in February to demand the government step in to save their troubled industry, said a strike organizer Wednesday.

The coffee growers strike will block national highways across 12 departments of Colombia, in an attempt to save an industry for which Colombia is famous, Victor Correa, strike coordinator in Antioquia department, said.

"We are paid $282 for a sack of coffee but the cost of producing it is $366," he said. "We are small farmers. We are poor. The culture of coffee growing is important to Colombia but we cannot continue like this. We are facing an economic crisis, a social crisis, an institutional crisis and a crisis of production."

Source: Colombia Reports