When the first 100% Colombian coffee commercial featuring Juan Valdez aired in 1960, commercial coffee production in Colombia was just 100 years old. Although coffee had been grown in Colombia since the 18th Century, serious efforts to grown coffee for export did not begin until the 1870’s. In the 30 year period between 1860 and 1890, exports grew from 12,000 bags to 200,000. Despite a depression in world coffee prices, that number would double by 1910. So much land in Colombia on which coffee can be grown is at high altitudes that coffee quickly overtook cocoa and tobacco and became the country’s most important cash crop.
