Despite the sustained effects of catastrophic economic policies, a terrible civil war, and a major decline in international prices, coffee production in Peru has increased phenomenally during the past decade and is now the nation's primary agricultural export. The increase makes Peru unusual among coffee-producing countries, and it can be explained in large part in terms of the response of small coffee growers to the disruption of traditional marketing networks. The experience of a small cooperative in the Department of Junín reveals that the alternative networks developed with the assistance of international nongovernmental organizations have not only provided coffee growers guaranteed prices that are higher than the international average and strengthened their position in the market but also facilitated improvements to the productive system and better management of natural resources.

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Par ses conséquences environnementales, la production caféière connaît un statut tout à fait particulier en Amérique latine, étant considérée comme la pire ou la meilleure des agricultures, selon le mode de production utilisé. Au Brésil, pays où la grande propriété a longtemps exercé une position dominante, elle a été perçue comme une activité de type minier, les grandes exploitations, les f a z e n d a s , se déplaçant au fur et à mesure de l'épuisement des terres. En revanche, dans tout le reste de l'Amérique latine, la même activité, sous sa forme traditionnelle, avant l'arrivée des variétés à haut rendement, est reconnue comme l'exemple même d'une activité « durable », particulièrement recommandable dans le cas de milieux difficiles, telles les cordillères montagneuses. Elle est d'autant plus « durable » que ces exploitations, paysannes le plus souvent, ont fait depuis longtemps la preuve de leurs capacités de résistance face aux crises récurrentes qui secouent le marché caféier.

RESUMO- A cafeicultura brasileira pode ser apresentada como uma economia «exemplar» deste país. Seus traços característicos e suas transformações evidenciam os aspectos da evolução do conjunto das atividades produtivas do Brasil. A importância histórica da cafeicultura é considerável (valorização de espaços pioneiros, base de um povoamento de origem europeia, ponto de apoio do processo de industrialização). Ela permanece sendo um setor económico estratégico considerando-se que o Brasil se mantém como primeiro produtor e exportador mundial. As significativas evoluções que caracterizam a cafeicultura desde o século XIX (deslocamento de áreas de produção, modernização das técnicas culturais, forte presença estatal seguida de sua diminução, descentralização das instâncias de decisão...) são reveladoras das transformações da agricultura brasileira. Recentemente, no novo contexto de liberalização dos mercados, a procura da qualidade do produto esta mobilizando o conjunto dos atores envolvidos. Ela reponde à uma certa preocupação, presente em muitos setores agrícolas, aquela da inserção mais ativa do café nos mercados internacionais competitivos e exigentes.

The Youth of Latin American Coffee Growing. The coffee shrub, originating probably in the mountains of Ethiopia, and of which Yemen was the first large producer, was only introduced into the New World at the beginning of the 18th century, at the same time into the Carribbean Islands and into the Guiana region. It was then propagated to Venezuela and Brazil ; the latter became the world's leading producer in 1830, a position that it still holds today. During the same period, Costa Rica became the first of the Central American countries to cultivate the plant, and, like Columbia, assumed leadership in the crop towards the beginning of the 20th century. Latin American coffee growing today is remarkable not only for its overall production (60% of the worldwide total), but also for its quality, its mobility, its modernity, and the major role that peasant owned companies -except in Brazil -play.