What is Cenicafe?

Cenicafe - the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones de Café - is Colombia's national coffee research centre, based in Chinchina, Caldas. It's operated by the Federacion Nacional de Cafeteros (FNC) and is one of the most significant coffee research institutions in the world.

Cenicafe's breeding programme has produced most of the cultivars that define Colombian coffee production today. Colombia F1 through F8, Castillo, Tabi, and numerous regional Castillo sub-varieties - including Castillo El Tambo, Castillo Naranjal, and Castillo Paraguaicito - are all Cenicafe developments. Each involved decades of crossing, selection, and field trialling to combine leaf rust resistance with acceptable cup quality.

Beyond breeding, Cenicafe conducts research across agronomy, processing, climate adaptation, and post-harvest management. For buyers sourcing Colombian green coffee, understanding Cenicafe's role explains why the cultivar landscape looks the way it does - and why "Castillo" on a specification means something specific about the history of that plant material.