Effects of Fair Trade and organic certifications on small-scale coffee farmer households in Central America and Mexico

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 singlehandedly 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.

Coffee, cooperatives, and choba-choba: the role of non-market labor networks in building equitable supply chains

“…output prices (Becchetti and Costantino, 2006;Weber, 2011;Méndez et al, 2010) and higher household incomes (Arnould, Plastina and Ball, 2009). Participating farmers have also enjoyed increased purchasing power, improving household food security and nutritional diversity, though also increasing household dependence on purchased food (Jaffee, 2007).…”

Comercio justo, producción cafetalera y sociedad civil en Centroamérica

“…Tal como lo corrobora Méndez et al (2010), en su interesante comparación de diversos casos en América Central y México, el CJ presenta resultados ambivalentes en materia de mejoramiento de las condiciones de vida de los productores de café y, por sí solas no parece que estas redes tengan la capacidad para atemperar de forma significativa problemas como la pobreza o la marginación en la región. Es importante preguntarnos, a pesar del triunfalismo y altas expectativas que generó el CJ en los noventa, si esta iniciativa es efectivamente una vía transformadora de las relaciones comerciales que, ulteriormente, impacte de manera positiva en el ámbito local de los pequeños productores.…”

Biogenic Amines as Quality Marker in Organic and Fair-Trade Cocoa-Based Products

“…Moreover, under the quality point of view, organic cocoa-based products are generally made with cocoa for fine flavor/single-source cocoa requiring the necessity of a flavor profile that is not only unique but can also stand alone in chocolate with 70% cocoa content. In this sense, there is general consensus among chocolate industry experts that the market for organic cocoa will be increasingly restricted to producers of high quality cocoa [7].…”