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For well over a century, coffee has been a major export from Latin America, shaping both the economy and the natural landscape of the region. Yet recent changes in coffee production methods, driven by increased demand, the desire to boost yields, and an international trade agreement based on quotas, threaten to erode many of the benefits of traditional coffee culture on small plantations, with wildlife and small farmers paying the price.
In dollar value, coffee is the most important (legal) traded commodity after oil in the world and is the primary export of many developing countries, accounting for as much as one third of export earnings in several Latin American countries [1]. It is also a significant source of employment, with some 20 million to 25 million people – most of them small farmers – dependent on income from the world coffee crop [2]. More than two thirds of current world coffee production is exported from Latin America and the Caribbean, with much of the rest coming from African and Asian producers such as Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea [3]. However, most coffee is consumed in the developed world; the United States and the European Community together import two out of every three bags of coffee produced in the world [4].
Coffee production has grown by nearly 200 percent since 1950 [5], and recent years have seen a surge in consumer demand for specialty coffees such as gourmet blends, flavored coffees, and organically grown coffees. (See More Coffee, Fewer Birds?.) Indeed, fashionable coffee bars in many developed countries today are not unlike the coffeehouses of 18th-Century Europe, which flourished when the drink was first introduced.
| More Coffee, Fewer Birds? | ||||||
| Coffee Production in Northern Latin America, 1950-90 | ||||||
| Â |
PRODUCTION (000 metric tons) |
PERCENT CHANGE |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| REGION | 1950a | 1960b | 1970c | 1980 | 1990 | 1950-90 |
| World | 2,222 | 4,268 | 4,262 | 5,039 | 6,282 | 183 |
| Central Americad | 189 | 341 | 428 | 605 | 680 | 260 |
| Caribbeane | 107 | 136 | 121 | 134 | 139 | 30 |
| Northern Latin Americaf |
711 | 1,102 | 1,214 | 1,707 | 2,104 | 196 |
|
Source: Robert A. Rice and Justin R. Ward, Coffee, Conservation, and Commerce in the Western Hemisphere (Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and Natural Resources Defense Council, Washington D.C., 1996), Table 2, p. 39. Notes: a. 1948-52 average. b. 1961-65 average. c. 1969-71 average. d. Production figures for Central America include Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. e. Production figures for the Caribbean include Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Trinidad and Tobago. f. Production figures for northern Latin America include all the countries listed above, plus Colombia. | ||||||
1. Robert A. Rice and Justin R. Ward, Coffee, Conservation, and Commerce in the Western Hemisphere (Smithsonian MigratoryBird Center and Natural Resources Defense Council, Washington, D.C., 1996), p. 41.
2. International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), Unlocking Trade Opportunities: Changing Consumption and Production Patterns, report for the U.N. Department of Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development (IIED, London, 1997), p. 36.
3. International Coffee Organization, “Global Coffee Production and Exports.” Available online at: http://ico.org/ico_data0.html (March 24, 1997).
4. Ibid.
5. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO),Production Yearbook (various years), cited in op.cit. 1, p. 39.