It is the guild document of Colombian coffee growers, which allows them to choose and be elected in the Coffee Elections, a democratic and pluralistic process that takes place every four years throughout the coffee country, which covers 23 departments and 603 municipalities in the country.
This union document has had an important evolution in the services it offers. In 2006, through the alliance of the Federation of Coffee Growers (FNC) with the Banco de Bogotá, it became the Smart Coffee Card, an instrument with financial functionalities that integrated a band and a chip through which they could be carried out safely and Traceability payments for sales of coffee and FNC programs.
For 2014, with the objective of increasing the advantages of the Cédula and the Smart Coffee Card, the FNC Steering Committee approved the linking of a savings account. In that sense, as of July 2019, the Smart Coffee Certificate had allowed banking more than 380 thousand producers in 420 municipalities and 20 departments.
This is how the Smart Coffee Certificate, in addition to being the identification of Colombian coffee growers, is also an instrument that has allowed its financial inclusion, a unique model in the country’s rural sector.