LINGERIE CROPS UP IN COLOMBIA

Coffee, Cocaine Or Lingerie? A U.N.-Backed Work Program Shows Some Rural
Colombians That Sex Sells -- In The Underwear Industry

BOGOTA - First they grew coffee. When prices for the bean collapsed, many
turned to growing illegal drug crops.

And now, hundreds of rural Colombians, hoping for a better living, are
trying their hand at making racy lingerie for a French retail chain under a
new U.N.-backed program.

The wispy G-strings, revealing bras and lacy garter belts went on sale
Saturday at Carrefour's 11 outlets around Colombia. The undergarments will
be sold at its overseas stores in coming months.

''We are opening up a universe of new possibilities for Colombia's rural
communities,'' said Gabriel Silva, head of the Colombian Federation of
Coffee Growers, which along with the French Embassy, the United Nations drug
office and Carrefour is promoting the alternative development project.

The project was conceived when farmers in the coffee-growing region began
cultivating illicit drug crops, which swelled the ranks of Colombia's
leftist rebel and right-wing paramilitary groups that control the trade.

Colombia produces 70 percent of the world's cocaine and most of the heroin
sold in the United States.

JOB SEARCH

Alarmed by a sharp rise in poverty and crime in southwest Colombia's
coffee-rich Valle del Cauca region in the past few years, the U.N. Office on
Drugs and Crime tried to find jobs and markets for the poor farmers.

''We searched for projects that we believed could reduce illicit
activities,'' said Thierry Rostan, the U.N. drug office representative in
Colombia who led the effort. ``What people needed were jobs and places to
sell their products.''

After touring Valle del Cauca, Rostan identified a local cooperative,
Integrated Industries, that trained poor families in new skills. But with
little access to markets, the cooperative was struggling to find enough work
for its employees, and needed a major company like Carrefour to broaden its
reach.

Carrefour's underwear label, Symphony, hooked up with the cooperative, which
has 12 production centers scattered across the province. The centers have
good access to roads, overcoming a problem that has bedeviled other
development projects.

In the past, efforts to promote coca alternatives, notably fruits and
vegetables, in remote areas of the country have often foundered because of a
lack of infrastructure and usable roads.

PAY AND BENEFITS

About 800 women, many of them heads of families, are making the lingerie.
They take home about 800,000 Colombian pesos -- about $280 -- a month, about
double the minimum wage and far more than what they could make growing
coffee. They also enjoy health benefits and paid vacation.

Coca growers, in comparison, make about 200,000 Colombian pesos -- or $70 --
but they also need to pay taxes to illegal armed groups.

This year, Carrefour has spent about $63,500 on the lingerie project, and
expects to spend $106,000 in 2004.

Last week, top models paraded the products to disco beats and flashing
lights along a catwalk in Bogota's French Lycee in front of business
executives, politicians, lawmakers and French Ambassador Daniel Parfait.

''Violence and unemployment have brought misery to rural Colombia,'' Edilma
Arango, of Integrated Industries, told the dignitaries. ``You are bringing
hope.''