A summary of the recent evolution of Colombian coffee production and a look at the family farms that currently represent the majority of coffee grown in Colombia highlights the institutional adjustments that have optimized benefits from marketing phases controlled by the country and passed them on to the producers. It also reveals the strategies by which coffee growers have adjusted their production systems, including technification and the pursuit of sustainability. As a result of these adjustments, family farmers have made their production systems economically viable, although for most the income from them has been insufficient to raise them above the poverty line.