{"id":3671,"date":"2021-04-15T16:36:48","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T22:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/accesstomexico.mx\/blog\/?p=3671"},"modified":"2021-04-15T16:36:48","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T22:36:48","slug":"mexico-coffee-leader-touts-state-control-of-prices-to-help-farmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/accesstomexico.mx\/blog\/mexico-coffee-leader-touts-state-control-of-prices-to-help-farmers\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexico coffee leader touts state control of prices to help farmers."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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THE YUCATAN TIMES<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mexico\u2019s top coffee association is pushing for the creation of a new government agency that would have the power to regulate and set prices with the goal of improving livelihoods for legions of coffee farmers, the group\u2019s leader told Reuters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador\u2019s made a campaign promise to create such an agency along with minimum price guarantees and generous subsidies to coffee farmers. A bill has recently been introduced in Congress by a ruling party senator that proposes a similar approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new agency should have its own budget as well as offer financing and marketing help for the country\u2019s mostly small-scale, cash-strapped farmers, said Luis Herrera, head of the coffee association, AMECAFE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we want is for prices to be regulated and that we have fair prices that allow farmers to recover their production costs and earn a small profit,\u201d he said in an interview on last week, adding that coffee buyers and industrial market players should also participate in the new agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Price controls for coffee were mostly abandoned years ago due to the difficulty of reaching global agreements on supply, exposing farmers to sharp price crashes. In 2019, the world\u2019s third-largest producer, Colombia, introduced subsidies for coffee growers and, along with Brazil, called for supply caps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lopez Obrador has authorized price floors for other agricultural commodities, including Mexico\u2019s staple corn, but has to yet to carry through on most of his coffee campaign promises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mexico is the world\u2019s tenth biggest coffee producer with around 500,000 farmers scattered across the country, mostly concentrated in the lush, mountainous states of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Veracruz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herrera, an organic coffee farmer from Chiapas, said coffee farmers currently only receive a maximum annual benefit of 6,200 pesos ($308) through a direct cash-payment agriculture program aimed at small farmers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While some 180,000 coffee farmers are currently enrolled in the program, and the government has pledged to add another 70,000, he stressed more support was needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not enough,\u201d said Herrera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five years ago, Mexican coffee hit a decades low of just 2.3 million 60-kg bags, in large part due to a large-scale outbreak of the tree-killing fungus roya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herrera sees coffee output during the current 2020\/2021 season totaling 4.0 million bags, down from a previous estimate of 4.2 million bags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut it could be less,\u201d he said, noting that 2020\/2021 coffee exports are forecast at 2.8 million bags, down from a previous estimate of 3.0 million bags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest export estimate would still mark a nearly 4% increase from the previous cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herrera said roya continued to have an impact and that pandemic restrictions prevented at least 40% of seasonal Guatemalan coffee workers from entering the country to help pick this year\u2019s harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He described both as \u201cserious problems,\u201d but singled out the fungus as especially worrisome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe roya problem now has a lot to do with climate change,\u201d he said, explaining that warmer farms with less shade have been especially hard hit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New trees marketed as roya-resistant and widely adopted have not lived up to the hype, especially Costa Rica and Oro Azteca varieties, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a bright note, Herrera said he expects annual double-digit growth to continue for certified organic coffee production, part of a trend for certification programs that can offer farmers higher prices for some beans, like fair-trade coffee embraced by industry giant Starbucks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Output for the premium organic crop is projected to rise by around 25%, up from about 275,000 bags produced the last cycle, Herrera said. ($1 = 20.1582 Mexican pesos)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Yucatan Times Staff. (2021). Mexico coffee leader touts state control of prices to help farmers. M\u00e9xico.\u00a0The Yucatan Times<\/em>. Recuperado de\u00a0<\/strong>https:\/\/www.theyucatantimes.com\/2021\/04\/mexico-coffee-leader-touts-state-control-of-prices-to-help-farmers\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE YUCATAN TIMES Mexico\u2019s top coffee association is pushing for the creation of a new government agency that would have the power to regulate and set prices with the goal of improving livelihoods for legions of coffee farmers, the group\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/accesstomexico.mx\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/accesstomexico.mx\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/accesstomexico.mx\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accesstomexico.mx\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accesstomexico.mx\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3671"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/accesstomexico.mx\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3673,"href":"https:\/\/accesstomexico.mx\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3671\/revisions\/3673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/accesstomexico.mx\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accesstomexico.mx\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accesstomexico.mx\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}