No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Effects of Fair Trade and organic certifications on small-scale coffee farmer households in Central America and Mexico
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 June 2010
Abstract
We provide a review of sustainable coffee certifications and results from a quantitative analysis of the effects of Fair Trade, organic and combined Fair Trade/organic certifications on the livelihood strategies of 469 households and 18 cooperatives of Central America and Mexico. Certified households were also compared with a non-certified group in each country. To analyze the differences in coffee price, volume, gross revenue and education between certifications, we used the Kruskal–Wallis (K–W) non-parametric test and the Mann–Whitney U non-parametric test as a post-hoc procedure. Household savings, credit, food security and incidence of migration were analyzed through Pearson's chi-square test. Our study corroborated the conditions of economic poverty among small-scale coffee farmer households in Central America and Mexico. All certifications provided a higher price per pound and higher gross coffee revenue than non-certified coffee. However, the average volumes of coffee sold by individual households were low, and many certified farmers did not sell their entire production at certified prices. Certifications did not have a discernable effect on other livelihood-related variables, such as education, and incidence of migration at the household level, although they had a positive influence on savings and credit. Sales to certified markets offer farmers and cooperatives better prices, but the contribution derived from these premiums has limited effects on household livelihoods. This demonstrates that certifications will not single-handedly bring significant poverty alleviation to most coffee-farming families. Although certified coffee markets alone will not resolve the livelihood challenges faced by smallholder households, they could still contribute to broad-based sustainable livelihoods, rural development and conservation processes in coffee regions. This can be done by developing more active partnerships between farmers, cooperatives, certifications and environmental and rural development organizations and researchers in coffee regions. Certifications, especially Fair Trade/organic, have proven effective in supporting capacity building and in serving as networks that leverage global development funding for small-scale coffee-producing households.
Keywords
Information
- Type
- Research Paper
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010
References
1Gresser, C. and Tickell, S. 2002. Mugged: Poverty in Your Coffee Cup. Oxfam International, London, UK.Google Scholar
2Lewin, B., Giovannucci, D., and Varangis, P. 2004. Coffee Markets: New Paradigms in Global Supply and Demand. World Bank, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
3ICO. 2008. ICO indicator prices: monthly and annual averages. Available from: http://www.ico.org/prices/p2.htm (accessed 12 March 2008).Google Scholar
4Petchers, S. and Harris, S. 2008. The roots of the coffee crisis. In Bacon, C., Méndez, V.E., Gliessman, S.R., Goodman, D., and Fox, J.A. (eds). Confronting the Coffee Crisis: Fair Trade, Sustainable Livelihoods and Ecosystems in Mexico and Central America. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
5Renard, M.C. and Pérez-Grovas, V. 2007. Fair Trade coffee in Mexico: at the center of the debates. In Raynolds, L.T., Murray, D.L., and Wilkinson, J. (eds). Fair Trade: The Challenge of Transforming Globalization. Routledge, London and New York. p. 138–156.Google Scholar
6Bacon, C.M., Méndez, V.E., Gliessman, S.R., Goodman, D., and Fox, J.A. (eds). 2008. Confronting the Coffee Crisis: Fair Trade, Sustainable Livelihoods and Ecosystems in Mexico and Central America. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7Ponte, S. 2004. Standards and Sustainability in the Coffee Sector: A Global Value Chain Approach. IISD/UNCTAD, Winnipeg, Canada.Google Scholar
8Raynolds, L.T., Murray, D., and Heller, A. 2007. Regulating sustainability in the coffee sector: a comparative analysis of third-party environmental and social certification initiatives. Agriculture and Human Values 24:147–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9Murray, D., Raynolds, L.T., and Taylor, P.L. 2003. One Cup at a Time: Poverty Alleviation and Fair Trade Coffee in Latin America. Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA.Google Scholar
10SCAA. 2008. What is specialty coffee?SCAA. Available from: http://www.scaa.org/what_is_specialty_coffee.aspGoogle Scholar
11Courville, S. 2008. Organic and social certifications: recent developments from the global regulators. In Bacon, C.M., Mendez, V.E., Gliessman, S.R., Goodman, D., and Fox, J.A. (eds). Confronting the Coffee Crisis: Fair Trade, Sustainable Livelihoods and Ecosystems in Mexico and Central America. MIT Press, Boston, MA. p. 289–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12Goodman, D. 2003. The quality ‘turn’ and alternative food practices: reflections and agenda. Journal of Rural Studies 19:1–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13Rice, R.A. 2001. Noble goals and challenging terrain: organic and fair trade coffee movements in the global marketplace. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 14:39–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14Liu, A. 2007. Road to the future: SCAA's path to sustainability leads to UN's Millennium Development Goals. The SCAA Chronicle Jan./Feb.:8–9.Google Scholar
15World Bank. 2004. Executive summary and update of the original paper titled Varangis, P., B. Lewin, & D. Giovannucci (2003) Dealing with the coffee crisis in Central America: Impacts and strategies. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper. World Bank, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
16Villalobos, A. and Giovanucci, D. 2006. Acelerando el crecimiento del café orgánico en el E.E.U.U. +Kafe Revista de Café Diferenciado (CIMS) 3:9.Google Scholar
17IFOAM. 2008. Organic standards and certification. Available at Website http://www.ifoam.org/about_ifoam/standards/index.html (accessed 12 March 2008).Google Scholar
18USDA. 2003. Organic certification/National Organic Program. Available from: http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?navid=ORGANIC_CERTIFICATIO&navtype=RT&parentnav=AGRICULTUREGoogle Scholar
19Raynolds, L.T. 2004. The globalization of organic agro-food networks. World Development 32:725–743.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20Yussefi, M., Willer, H., and Geier, B. 2004. Organic agriculture worldwide: still on the rise in 2004. Ecology and Farming (IFOAM) Jan.–April:12.Google Scholar
21Kilian, B., Jones, C., Pratt, L., and Villalobos, A. 2006. Is sustainable agriculture a viable strategy to improve farm income in Central America? A case study on coffee. Journal of Business Research 59:322–330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
22TransFair USA. 2005. 2004 Fair Trade coffee facts and figures. Available from: http://www.transfairusa.org/ (accessed 7 April 2007).Google Scholar
23Bacon, C. 2005. Confronting the coffee crisis: can fair trade, organic and specialty coffees reduce small-scale farmer vulnerability in northern Nicaragua. World Development 33:497–511.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
24EFTA. 2003. The Fair Trade Yearbook: Challenges of Fair Trade 2001–2003. European Fair Trade Association, Maastricht.Google Scholar
25Rowlands, J. 1997. Questioning Empowerment: Working with Women in Honduras. Humanities Press, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
26FLO. 2004. Standards in general. Available from: http://www.fairtrade.net/sites/standards/general.htm (accessed 8 August 2005).Google Scholar
27Raynolds, L.T. 2009. Mainstreaming fair trade coffee: from partnership to traceability. World Development 37:1083–1093.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
28Greenberg, R., Bichier, P., Angon, A.C., and Reitsma, R. 1997. Bird populations in shade and sun coffee plantations in Central Guatemala. Conservation Biology 11:448–459.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
29Moguel, P. and Toledo, V.M. 1999. Biodiversity conservation in traditional coffee systems of Mexico. Conservation Biology 13:11–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
30Perfecto, I., Rice, R.A., Greenberg, R., and Vand der Voort, M.E. 1996. Shade coffee: a disappearing refuge for biodiversity. BioScience 46:598–609.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
31Rice, P.D. and McLean, J. 1999. Sustainable Coffee at the Crossroads. White Paper. Consumer's Choice Council, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
32Giovannucci, D. 2001. Sustainable Coffee Survey of the North American Specialty Coffee Industry. Summit Foundation, Philadelphia, PA.Google Scholar
33Mas, A.H. and Dietsch, T.V. 2003. An index of management intensity for coffee agroecosystems to evaluate butterfly species richness. Ecological Applications 13:1491–1501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
34Mas, A.H. and Dietsch, T.V. 2004. Linking shade coffee certification to biodiversity conservation: butterflies and birds in Chiapas, Mexico. Ecological Applications 14:642–654.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
35Philpott, S.M., Bichier, P., Rice, R., and Greenberg, R. 2007. Field testing ecological and economic benefits of sustainable coffee certification: do organic and fair trade do enough? Conservation Biology 21:975–985.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
36Giovannucci, D. and Ponte, S. 2005. Standards as a new form of social contract? Sustainability initiatives in the coffee industry. Food Policy 30:284–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
37Raynolds, L., Murray, D., and Taylor, P.L. 2004. Fair Trade coffee: building producer capacity via global networks. Journal of International Development 16:1109–1121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
38EUREPGAP. 2008. About EurepGap. EUREPGAP. Available from: http://www.eurep.org/Languages/English/about.html (accessed 12 March 2008).Google Scholar
39SAI. 2008. Social Accountability International-SA8000 overview. Available from: http://www.sa-intl.org/ (accessed 12 March 2008).Google Scholar
40Bray, D.B., Plaza-Sanchez, J.L., and Contreras-Murphy, E. 2002. Social dimensions of organic coffee production in Mexico: lessons for eco-labeling initiatives. Society and Natural Resources 15:429–446.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
41Jaffee, D. 2007. Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability and Survival. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
42Lewis, J. 2005. Strategies for Survival: Migration and Fair Trade-Organic Coffee Production in Oaxaca, Mexico. Working Paper 118. The Center for Comparative Immigration Studies (CCIS), University of California, San Diego, CA.Google Scholar
43Martínez-Torres, M.E. 2005. Organic Coffee: Sustainable Development by Mayan Farmers. Ohio University Press, Athens, OH.Google Scholar
44Mutersbaugh, T. 2002. The number is the beast: the political economy of organic coffee certification and producer unionism. Environment and Planning A 34:1165–1184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
45Bacon, C.M. 2010. A spot of coffee in crisis: Nicaraguan smallholder cooperatives, Fair-Trade networks, and gendered empowerment. Latin American Perspectives 37:50–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
46Méndez, V.E. 2002. Fair Trade Networks in Two Coffee Cooperatives of Western El Salvador: An Analysis of Insertion Through a Second Level Organization. Case Study Prepared for the Project on “Poverty Alleviation Through Participation in Fair Trade Networks”. Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO.Google Scholar
47Lyngbaek, A.E., Muschler, R.G., and Sinclair, F.L. 2001. Productivity and profitability of multistrata organic versus conventional coffee farms in Costa Rica. Agroforestry Systems 53:205–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
48Arnould, E.J., Plastina, A., and Ball, D. 2009. Does Fair Trade deliver on its core value proposition? Effects on income, educational attainment, and health in three countries. Journal of Public Policy and Marketing 28:186–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
49Ellis, F. 2000. Rural Livelihoods and Diversity in Developing Countries. Oxford University Press, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
50Chambers, R. and Conway, G. 1992. Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: Practical Concepts for the 21st Century. Discussion Paper No. 220. Institute for Development Studies, Sussex, UK.Google Scholar
51Bebbington, A.J. 1999. Capitals and capabilities: a framework for analyzing peasant viability, rural livelihoods and poverty. World Development 27:2021–2044.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
52Bebbington, A.J. and Batterbury, S.P.J. 2001. Transnational livelihoods and landscapes: political ecologies of globalization. Ecumene 8:369–380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
53Gezon, L.L. and Paulson, S. 2004. Place, power, difference: multiscale research at the dawn of the twenty-first century. In Paulson, S. and Gezon, L.L. (eds). Political Ecology Across Spaces, Scales and Social Groups. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick. p. 1–16.Google Scholar
54Zimmerer, K.S. 2007. Agriculture, livelihoods, and globalization: the analysis of new trajectories (and avoidance of just-so stories) of human–environment change and conservation. Agriculture and Human Values 24:9–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
55Bryant, R.L. and Bailey, S. 1997. Third World Political Ecology. Routledge, London and New York.Google Scholar
57Watts, M. and Peet, D. 2004. Liberating political ecology. In Peet, D. and Watts, M. (eds). Liberation Ecologies, 2nd ed.Routledge, London. p. 1–30.Google Scholar
58Zimmerer, K.S. and Bassett, T.J. (eds).2003. Political Ecology: An Integrative Approach to Geography and Environment-Development Studies. Guilford Publications, New York.Google Scholar
59Gereffi, G., Humphrey, J., and Sturgeon, T. 2005. The governance of global value chains. Review of International Political Economy 12:78–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
60Goodman, D. 2008. The international coffee crisis: a review of the issues. In Bacon, C.M., Méndez, V.E., Gliessman, S.R., Goodman, D., and Fox, J.A. (eds). Confronting the Coffee Crisis: Fair Trade, Sustainable Livelihoods and Ecosystems in Mexico and Central America. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. p. 3–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
61Daviron, B. and Ponte, S. 2005. The Coffee Paradox: Global Markets, Commodity Trade and the Elusive Promise of Development. Zed Books, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
62Gereffi, G., Humphrey, J., Kaplinsky, R., and Sturgeon, T.J. 2001. Introduction: globalization, value chains and development. IDS Bulletin 32:1–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
63Pietrobelli, C. and Rabellotti, R. 2006. Upgrading to Compete: Global Value Chains, Clusters and SMEs in Latin America. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
64Talbot, J. 2004. Grounds for Agreement: The Political Economy of the Coffee Commodity Chain. Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, MD.Google Scholar
65Dorofeev, S. and Grant, P. 2006. Statistics for Real Life Sample Surveys: Non-simple-random Samples and Weighted Data. Cambridge University Press, London and New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
66Bacon, C., Méndez, V.E., and Brown, M. 2005. Participatory action-research and support for community development and conservation: examples from shade coffee landscapes of El Salvador and Nicaragua. Research Brief No. 6. Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, University of California at Santa Cruz.Google Scholar
67Butler, L.M., Dephelps, C., and Howell, R.E. 1995. Focus groups: a tool for understanding community perceptions and experiences. Western Regional Extension Publication Report No. WREP0128. Washington State University, Seattle, WA.Google Scholar
68Stewart, D.W., Shamdasani, P.N., and Rook, D.W. 2006. Focus Groups: Theory and Practice. Sage, Thousand Oaks, London and New Delhi.Google Scholar
69Raynolds, L.T., Murray, D.L., and Wilkinson, J. 2007. Fair Trade: The Challenge of Transforming Globalization. Routledge, London and New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
71Flores, M., Bratescu, A., Martínez, J.O., Oviedo, J.A., and Acosta, A. 2002. Centroamérica: el impacto de la caída de los precios del café. Serie de estudios y perspectivas # 9. CEPAL/ECLAC, México, DF, México.Google Scholar
72Van der Vossen, H.A.M. 2005. A critical analysis of the agronomic and economic sustainability of organic coffee production. Experimental Agriculture 41:449–473.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
73Bacon, C.M. 2006. Estudio de costos y propuesta de precios para sostener el café, las familias de productores, y organizaciones certificadas por Comercio Justo en América Latina y el Caribe. Report to the Coordinadora Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Pequeños Productores de Comercio Justo (CLAC).Google Scholar
74Pinstrup-Andersen, P. 2009. Food security: definition and measurement. Food Security 1:5–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
75Maxwell, S. 1996. Food security: a post-modern perspective. Food Policy 21:155–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
76Massey, D., Durand, J., and Russell-Malone, N.J. 2002. Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Era of Economic Integration. Sage Foundation, New York.Google Scholar
77Lewis, J. and Runsten, D. 2008. Is Fair Trade-organic coffee sustainable in the face of migration? Evidence from a Oaxacan Community. Globalizations 5:275–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
78Bebbington, A. and Kothari, U. 2006. Transnational development networks. Environment and Planning A 38:849–866.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
79Méndez, V.E. 2003. Fair trade, social networks and rural livelihoods in small farmer coffee cooperatives of western El Salvador. Paper presented at the 2003 Meeting of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), March 27–29, Dallas, TX.Google Scholar
80Murray, D.L., Raynolds, L.T., and Taylor, P.L. 2006. The future of Fair Trade coffee: dilemmas facing Latin America's small-scale producers. Development in Practice 16:179–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
81Utting-Chamorro, K. 2005. Does fair trade make a difference? The case of small coffee producers in Nicaragua. Development in Practice 15:584–599.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
82Bebbington, A. 1996. Organizations and intensifications—campesino federations, rural livelihoods and agricultural technology in the Andes and Amazonia. World Development 24:1161–1177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
83Taylor, P.L., Murray, D.L., and Raynolds, L.T. 2005. Keeping trade fair: governance challenges in the fair trade coffee initiative. Sustainable Development 13:199–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
84Fox, J. 1992. Democratic rural development: leadership accountability and regional peasant organizations. Development and Change 23:1–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
85Mutersbaugh, T. 2005. Just-in-space: Certified rural products, labor of quality, and regulatory spaces. Journal of Rural Studies 21:389–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
86Bacon, C.M., Méndez, V.E., and Fox, J.A. 2008. Cultivating sustainable coffee: persistent paradoxes. In Bacon, C.M., Méndez, V.E., Gliessman, S.R., Goodman, D., and Fox, J.A. (eds). Confronting the Coffee Crisis: Fair Trade, Sustainable Livelihoods and Ecosystems in Mexico and Central America. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. p. 337–372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
87Bacon, C.M., Méndez, V.E., Flores Gomez, M.A., Stuart, D., and Díaz Flores, S.R. 2008. Are sustainable coffee certifications enough to secure farmer livelihoods? The millennium development goals and Nicaragua's Fair Trade cooperatives. Globalizations 5:259–274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
88Méndez, V.E. 2008. Farmers' livelihoods and biodiversity conservation in a coffee landscape of El Salvador. In Bacon, C., Méndez, V.E., Gliessman, S.R., Goodman, D., and Fox, J.A. (eds). Confronting the Coffee Crisis: Fair Trade, Sustainable Livelihoods and Ecosystems in Mexico and Central America. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. p. 207–236.Google Scholar
89Méndez, V.E. 2008. Certificaciones de cafe: Version Popular. Oxfam America, San Salvador, El Salvador.Google Scholar
- 131
- Cited by
