history of mexico
Image source: Royal Coffee
Coffee was introduced to Mexico in the late 1700s by Spanish colonizers. Because of Mexico’s wealth of mineral deposits such as silver and gold, colonists were not initially concerned with acquiring land for the production of coffee or other agricultural means. Spanish colonizers’ lack of investment in coffee cultivation allowed indigenous farming communities to retain small plots of land in the remote mountains and countryside of southern Mexico.
In the 1860s, wealthy Europeans began buying large tracts of land, forcing some small, indigenous farmers further into the mountains and others into indentured servitude. It was not until the Mexican Revolution and the post-revolutionary Agrarian Reforms and labor laws that servants were free to cultivate coffee autonomously and small farmers began seeing some commercial success.
In 1973, the National Coffee Institute of Mexico (INMECAFE) was established to support the production of small coffee farmers, however these farmers remained marginalized, and nothing was done to improve farmers’ livelihoods. From the government’s failures, labor organizations and agrarian movements formed, and eventually, cooperatives. Mexican coffee cooperatives connect farmers to programs like Equal Exchange and help them achieve organic and Fair Trade certifications. Beyond coffee, these cooperatives also contribute to economic diversification, environmental initiatives, and social programming.
Today, Mexico is the largest producer of organic coffee in the world, the vast majority of which is grown by small farmers, thanks to the efforts of the cooperatives that arose from labor rights movements. Mexican coffee cooperatives remain a model of success and highly influential to social and labor movements across the world.
