history of guatemala
Image source: Royal Coffee
The Guatemalan coffee industry was born out of necessity in the early 1800s. Prior to coffee, Guatemala’s economy was predominantly based on the export of indigo and cochineal, two natural products that were used to dye garments. In the 1800s, chemical dyes were invented in Europe, and the need for indigo and cochineal was severely reduced. At this time, coffee became the predominant export crop.
The Guatemalan government provided significant support for the coffee industry by providing preferential trade agreements and tax breaks for coffee plantation owners. By 1859, the coffee industry in Guatemala was booming, with half a million coffee trees planted and exports to Europe ever-growing. Guatemalan dictator Justo Rufino Barrios made coffee Guatemala’s main export in the 1870s, and by 1880, coffee accounted for 90% of Guatemala’s exports.
To this day, the Guatemalan coffee harvest is heavily reliant on seasonal migrant workers who are forced to travel from their own small plots of land to larger farms to make enough to survive, allowing larger farms to keep wages low. A season’s worth of work is estimated to only generate a third of a family’s corn and bean calorie requirements. This lack of fair wages has resulted in wide-spread starvation and poverty. Many coffee plantation workers are only paid $2 per day despite the legal daily rural minimum wage of $2.49.
Although fair trade agreements have helped improve workers’ lives and reduced inequality and hunger, there are still significant issues left to resolve. Many plantation residents still experience indentured servitude and there is little opportunity for social mobility due to the promotion of indebtedness by large-scale farms through rent, credit policies, and loans for emergency health care. In addition, indigenous people have been forcibly removed from their ancestral homes, escalating tensions around land and increasing levels of fear and violence in the country.
Hope lies in the fair trade movement and with cooperative organizations such as Manos Campesinas, which helps its members with the technical aspects of coffee production and achieve fair trade and organic certifications, promotes women’s participation, and offers marketing support.
