Mexico: coffee growers between tradition and the global economy

Abstract

Mexican agriculture faces a deep crisis. Food production declines constantly as well as that of several export products, a fact which has caused serious losses and increasing poverty among peasant families, pushing many of its members to migrate illegaly to the United States. Mexican coffee production has supported for almost two centuries regional economies from which hundred of thousands of peasants have found in the past a source of yearly cash income. However, these regional economies are ruled by patrimonialist structures based on the power of “caciques” which keep producers in the position of mere suppliers of raw matter for industry. Recent experiences in Mexico have shown the existence of alternatives for small coffee growers, such as organic production directed to european markets. These alternatives, however, are not within the reach of most producers who have not changed their productive organization, their market insertion and their social organization. Although doing business within the global agricultural market imposes to small coffee growers new challenges, limitations represented by the peculiar forms of organization, leadership and management make it difficult for producers to cope with them. This work analyzes the case of the coffee growers from Veracruz at the Gulf of Mexico coast, using data gathered by fieldwork carried out between 1980 and 2001, as well data coming from 15 thousand interviews conducted early in 2001 with farmers of Veracruz from different economic categories.