Café Agrario is an association of coffee producers based in Ortega, in the department of Tolima. The association traces its origins to a founding leader who came out of the guerrilla conflict that Tolima was long known for, and who initially ran it with a political purpose, deliberately declining the support of the government and other bodies set up to help growers improve yield and quality. This caused no difficulty at first, but as more associations formed across the region, the members came to see that this kind of institutional support was precisely what an association should exist to provide. After six years the association changed its leadership and its direction, opening itself to outside assistance, and the improvement in both quality and volume was substantial. The new leadership, however, began selling coffee on credit, and when several of the buying companies fell into financial difficulty and went bankrupt, the growers were never paid for the coffee they had delivered. Although this setback was hard on all 35 families in the association, the growers continue to produce their coffee and to seek new ways to add value, focusing increasingly on specialty quality as a means…