Colombia

D

Libraries and Museums

The National Library in Bogotá (1777) contains about 800,000 volumes; it also administers town and village libraries throughout the country. The leading museums are located in Bogotá. The National Museum contains collections relating to the Spanish conquest and the colonial period. The National Archaeological Museum exhibits utensils, stone carvings, textiles, gold works, and other materials found at sites throughout the country. The famous Gold Museum features a noted collection of pre-Columbian gold objects.

See also Latin American Architecture; Latin American Literature; Latin American Music; Latin American Painting; Latin American Sculpture; Pre-Columbian Art and Architecture.

V

Economy

Colombia is primarily an agrarian nation, and its agricultural sector once was dependent on coffee as its principal cash crop. However, the country successfully diversified its economy beginning in the late 1980s when international coffee prices declined. In 1991 the government implemented sweeping economic reform measures, which opened the economy to international trade and investment and helped the economy expand. It continued to grow until the late 1990s with the rapid development of oil and coal and increased prices for coffee.

By the end of the 20th century, however, Colombia had fallen into a recession due to a combination of low world oil prices, reduced export demand, and diminished investment flow. Moreover, domestic growth and foreign investment were hindered by an inadequate energy and transportation infrastructure and by the widespread violence stemming from drug trafficking and guerrilla insurgencies. The Bank of the Republic raised interest rates and tightened its monetary policy to defend the Colombian peso against worsening trade and fiscal deficits. In addition the country’s unemployment rate rose to almost 20 percent by the end of the 1990s. The economy began to recover in the early 2000s as the government cut spending. A wealth tax of 1 percent was introduced in 2002 to reduce the deficit and secure loans from the International Monetary Fund. The unemployment rate began to fall.

---

---

The central government budget included revenues of $38.3 billion (2005) and expenditures of $33.7 billion (2005). The gross domestic product (GDP) in 2005 was $122.3 billion, or about $2,682.20 per capita. Not included in these official statistics is the economic impact of coca cultivation and the illegal drug trade, including cocaine, marijuana, and opium.

A

Agriculture

Coffee is still Colombia’s principal crop, although Colombia was recently surpassed by Vietnam as the second largest coffee producer in the world after Brazil. Colombia remains the world’s leading producer of mild coffee, but in the mid-1990s petroleum became the country’s largest source of foreign income. In the mid-1970s coffee accounted for 80 percent of Colombia’s export earnings; by the early 2000s coffee brought in less than 10 percent of export earnings. High production costs and low international prices combined to reduce the earnings of Colombian coffee growers.

Coffee is cultivated chiefly on mountain slopes from about 900 to 1,800 m (about 3,000 to 6,000 ft) above sea level, principally in the departments of Caldas, Antioquia, Cundinamarca, Norte de Santander, Tolima, and Santander. More than 150,000 mainly small coffee plantations extend over approximately 1 million hectares (approximately 2.5 million acres). Coffee output totaled 682,580 metric tons in 2005, with most of the exported coffee going to the United States.

While coffee is Colombia’s leading agricultural product, the country’s diverse climate and topography permit cultivation of a wide variety of other crops. Annual production of principal cash crops in addition to coffee includes cacao beans (37,099 metric tons), sugarcane (39.8 million), tobacco (35,760), cotton (162,714), bananas, and cut flowers. Chief food crops are rice (2.6 million), cassava (2.1 million), potatoes (2.6 million), and plantains. Plants producing pita, sisal, and hemp fibers, used in the manufacture of cordage and coarse sacking material, are also cultivated. The livestock included cattle, hogs, sheep, and horses.

The production of drug-related crops took on significant proportions starting in the 1970s with the cultivation of marijuana. Although Colombia has become notorious for its cocaine supply, the processing of coca leaves was more significant than actual coca plant cultivation in the country until the mid-1990s. As the supply of coca, primarily from Peru and Bolivia, was disrupted, coca growing in Colombia increased significantly. Opium poppies, used to make heroin, also became a significant source of revenue despite government efforts to stop their cultivation. It was estimated that from 1980 to 1995 the value of illegal drug exports amounted to almost half the value of Colombia’s legal exports.

B

Forestry and Fishing

Much of the forestland of Colombia is inaccessible because of poor transportation facilities; however, the tropical forest contains many commercially valuable species including mahogany and cedar. Trees harvested in Colombia in 2005 provided 9.7 million cubic meters (341 million cubic feet) of timber. Much of the wood is used as fuel.

The coastal waters and many rivers and lakes of Colombia provide a variety of fish, notably trout, tarpon, sailfish, and tuna. The total catch in 2004 was 211,385 metric tons. About one-quarter of the annual catch consists of freshwater species of fish.

C

Mining

Petroleum and coal are Colombia’s chief mining products. Other minerals extracted include gold, silver, emeralds, platinum, copper, nickel, and natural gas. The national petroleum company, Empresa Colombiana de Petróleos (ECOPETROL, Colombian Petroleum Company), controls petroleum operations along with several foreign-owned concessions. Production of crude petroleum is centered in the Magdalena River valley, about 650 km (about 400 mi) from the Caribbean, and in the region between the Cordillera Oriental and Venezuela. New oil reserves discovered 200 km (120 mi) east of Bogotá were expected to provide Colombia with energy self-sufficiency, as well as the means for significant exports, well into the 21st century. Much of Colombia’s oil is shipped to Curaçao for refining. Oil production rose from only 100,000 barrels per day in the early 1980s to 540,733 barrels per day in 2004.

Colombia is also one of the world’s leading exporters of coal. Two-thirds of an annual production of 47.6 million metric tons comes from a single open-pit mine, the world’s largest, on the Guajira Peninsula. Some 6.1 billion cu m (215 billion cu ft) of natural gas was produced in 2003.

Gold, mined in Colombia since pre-Columbian times, is found principally in the department of Antioquia and to a lesser extent in the departments of Cauca, Caldas, Nariño, Tolima, and Chocó. Platinum was discovered in Colombia in 1735, and the country has some of the most extensive deposits in the world. Platinum is found in the gold-bearing sands of the San Juan and Atrato river basins. The chief emerald-mining centers are the Muzo and Chivor mines. Other significant mineral products include lead, manganese, zinc, mercury, mica, phosphates, and sulfur.

	More from Encarta
	•  Presidential Myths Quiz •  Coffee break: Recharge your brain