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Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems: 25(3); 236–251                                             doi:10.1017/S1742170510000268


Effects of Fair Trade and organic
certifications on small-scale coffee
farmer households in Central America
and Mexico
V. Ernesto Mendez1,*, Christopher M. Bacon2, Meryl Olson3, Seth Petchers4, Doribel Herrador5,
             ´
Cecilia Carranza6, Laura Trujillo7, Carlos Guadarrama-Zugasti7, Antonio Cordon8,
                                                                            ´
                    8
and Angel Mendoza
1
  Environmental Program and Department of Plant and Soil Science, The University of Vermont,
153 So. Prospect St., Burlington, VT 05401, USA
2
  Department of Geography, 513 McCone Hall, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-4740, USA
3
  Department of Plant and Soil Science, Hills Agricultural Bldg, 105 Carrigan Drive, The University of Vermont,
Burlington, VT 05405, USA
4
  1 South Ivy Street, Denver, CO 80224, USA
5
  University of Barcelona, Calle Balmes 17-2a-2, Terrassa 08225, Barcelona, Spain
6
                                                                             ´                     ´
  Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, Unidad de Planificacion—Area de Economıa Ambiental,
Carretera a Santa Tecla Km. 5 1/2, Calle y Colonia Las Mercedes, Edificio MARN, San Salvador, El Salvador
7
  Universidad Autonoma de Chapingo, CRUO, Km. 3 Carretera Huatusco-Jalapa, Huatusco, Veracruz, Mexico
8
           ´
  Asociacion CRECER, 20 Calle 14-19 zona 10, Guatemala Ciudad, Guatemala
*Corresponding author: emendez@uvm.edu


Accepted 13 April 2010; First published online 4 June 2010                                                          Research Paper


Abstract
We provide a review of sustainable coffee certifications and results from a quantitative analysis of the effects of Fair Trade,
organic and combined Fair Trade/organic certifications on the livelihood strategies of 469 households and 18 cooperatives
of Central America and Mexico. Certified households were also compared with a non-certified group in each country. To
analyze the differences in coffee price, volume, gross revenue and education between certifications, we used the Kruskal–
Wallis (K–W) non-parametric test and the Mann–Whitney U non-parametric test as a post-hoc procedure. Household
savings, credit, food security and incidence of migration were analyzed through Pearson’s chi-square test. Our study
corroborated the conditions of economic poverty among small-scale coffee farmer households in Central America and
Mexico. All certifications provided a higher price per pound and higher gross coffee revenue than non-certified coffee.
However, the average volumes of coffee sold by individual households were low, and many certified farmers did not sell
their entire production at certified prices. Certifications did not have a discernable effect on other livelihood-related
variables, such as education, and incidence of migration at the household level, although they had a positive influence
on savings and credit. Sales to certified markets offer farmers and cooperatives better prices, but the contribution derived
from these premiums has limited effects on household livelihoods. This demonstrates that certifications will not single-
handedly bring significant poverty alleviation to most coffee-farming families. Although certified coffee markets alone
will not resolve the livelihood challenges faced by smallholder households, they could still contribute to broad-based
sustainable livelihoods, rural development and conservation processes in coffee regions. This can be done by developing
more active partnerships between farmers, cooperatives, certifications and environmental and rural development organ-
izations and researchers in coffee regions. Certifications, especially Fair Trade/organic, have proven effective in supporting
capacity building and in serving as networks that leverage global development funding for small-scale coffee-producing
households.

Key words: farmer cooperatives, political ecology, rural livelihoods, coffee crisis, alternative markets, sustainable coffee



                                                                                                      # Cambridge University Press 2010
Effects of Fair Trade and organic certifications on small-scale coffee farmer households                                    237

Introduction                                                      “gourmet” or “premium” coffee, specialty coffees are made
                                                                  from exceptional beans grown only in ideal coffee-
The coffee price crisis starting in the early 1990s, and          producing climates. They tend to feature distinctive flavors,
deepening between 1999 and 2003, had enormous social and          which are shaped by the unique characteristics of the soil
economic impacts on coffee producers around the world1,2.         that produces them’10. Under the specialty coffee umbrella,
Between 1989 and 2004, green coffee prices fell from              certified coffees are those which receive a certificate or
US$1.20 lb - 1 to between US$0.45 lb - 1 and US$0.65 lb - 1.      label from a third-party, independent agency11, such as
Although prices have rebounded to levels consistent with          certified Fair Trade (e.g., FLO label) or certified organic
the market averages during the previous 50 years (generally       (e.g., USDA or Naturland labels). ‘Sustainable coffee
between US$1.00 lb - 1 and US$1.25 lb - 1)3, the conse-           certification’ is an umbrella term encompassing several
quences of the price crash, and the chronic poverty that          types of certifications, and combinations of certifications
already existed, remain. In other words, even though prices       that explicitly address social and environmental concerns
have recovered, the coffee crisis continues4,5.                   and standards. Specialty and sustainable coffee markets
   In the midst of this situation, great expectations were        have expanded rapidly with increased consumer awareness
placed on the role of several ‘sustainable coffee’ certifi-        regarding issues of quality, social equity, taste, health and
cation initiatives, as key alternatives for farmers to confront   environment12,13. These trends are evident in the expand-
the crisis6. Certification systems claim to offer a com-           ing retail market values for the specialty coffee market
bination of benefits including higher and more stable prices       segment, which has increased from less than $4 billion in
to farmers, and increased market access and technical             the early 1990s to over $11 billion in 200614. As of 2004,
assistance. In turn, farmers and their organizations must         about 10% of global coffee exports could be considered
meet standards and subject themselves to inspections. As          specialty coffee, and of these an estimated 20% (or 2%
the number of certification initiatives increases, and con-        of the global supply) carried some type of certification
sumers become more aware of different certification                (Table 1). The percentage of specialty and sustainable
options, there is a growing concern to accurately document        coffees exported from Central America is significantly
the real impact of these alternatives on coffee producers         above the global average. During the 2002/2003 harvest,
and their families. Recent research on sustainable coffee         an estimated 6% of the region’s total exports were sold
certification points to differentiated impacts on growers for      into organic (1.5%), Fair Trade (3.6%) and Rainforest
each type of certification7,8. These studies provide impor-        Alliance (0.75%) certifications15. Although small, this
tant comparative examinations of certification standards           certified market segment continues to grow rapidly, with
and practices, often focusing on the macro-impacts of each        annual rates ranging from 10 to over 30%, depending on
program. However, most lack household- and community-             the year and the certification program6,16. If we expand the
level data that document the perceived benefits and limi-          2002/2003 market figures to include Mexico, account for
tations, as expressed by growers and their families9.             the rapid growth rates among these certification programs
   The general objective of this research was to analyze          and document the presence of newer sustainable coffee
the effects of Fair Trade and organic certifications on the        certification programs (e.g., Utz certified and Starbucks
livelihoods of coffee producer households of Central              CAFE Practices), as of 2003/2004, these certified coffees
America and Mexico. Our specific objectives were: (1) to           accounted for 8–13% of the region’s coffee production.
provide a critical review of the different types of sustain-
able coffee certifications; (2) to analyze the effects of Fair
Trade, organic and combined Fair Trade/organic certifi-            Certified organic coffee
cations on the livelihood strategies of coffee-producing
                                                                  Organic certification addresses standards that regulate the
households in Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala             coffee production process. Although there are variations
and Nicaragua) and Mexico, including social (e.g., social         between certifiers, most organic standards include the fol-
networks) and economic (e.g., gross coffee revenue)               lowing: ‘ecological’ management of farms; soil conser-
variables. This information was used to discuss the current       vation practices; abstention from the use of synthetic
and potential benefits and limitations of these certifications      fertilizers, pesticides and genetically modified crops; and
as a means to support the livelihoods of coffee-producing         intensive on-farm record keeping8,17,18. Organic certifi-
households.
                                                                  cation also establishes a separate chain of custody ensuring
                                                                  that certified organic food is separated from conventional
                                                                  products in any processing stages.
Review of Sustainable Certification                                   Organic agriculture has grown quickly in Latin
Initiatives                                                       American, expanding from almost 4.9 million ha of cer-
                                                                  tified organic land in 1998, to 5.8 million ha by 200419,20.
The rise of specialty coffee and sustainability
                                                                  Expanded production is associated with increasing demand
certifications
                                                                  in northern markets, including a 20% growth rate in the
The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA)                volume of organic coffee imports to the USA, since 200416.
defines specialty coffee as follows: ‘Sometimes called             In 2002/2003, more than 2% of the coffee lands in Central
238                                                                                                                        ´
                                                                                                                     V.E. Mendez et al.
Table 1. Differentiated and certified coffee in relation to total volumes sold worldwide (2003–2004).
                                                                     Volume
Market segment                                                     (metric tons)               % of total                     Source

Conventionally traded coffee                                         4,659,522                    90.70                  This table
Estimated exported volume of differentiated coffee                     480,000                     9.30                  Lewin et al.2
Total green coffee exported                                          5,139,522                   100                     ICO3
Certified coffee exports organic                                         26,400                     0.51                  Ponte7
Fair Trade (of which 14,642 is also organic)                            28,283                     0.55                  TransFair USA22
Shade grown                                                                660                     0.01                  Ponte7
Rainforest alliance                                                     10,000                     0.19                  Courville11
Utz Kapeh                                                               14,000                     0.27                  Courville11
Estimated total certified coffee                                         65,702                     1.28                  This table
  (13.7% of differentiated coffee is also certified)

Most data refer to 2003. Fair Trade lb, converted to metric tons based on 2.2 lb = 1 kg; 1000 kg = 1 metric ton. Data from TransFair
reported originally by FLO. The organic and shade grown data are from Ponte7 and Fair Trade data are from this table. The estimated 10%
growth rate is taken from Ponte7. While Ponte considered the overlap between total fair trade production and the 52% that is also certified
organic, this summary assumes that the organic total estimated by Ponte excludes the Fair Trade organic coffee. This table is a new
estimate addressing the segments in the global coffee trade as of 2003. According to Raynolds et al.8, Utz Kapeh, Rainforest Alliance and
Bird Friendly certified farms have all have substantially increased their production by 2004; however, these three certifications systems
report the total volumes of coffee produced on certified farms although much of this coffee is still exported as conventional coffee and not
necessarily purchased under these terms (see Table 3 in Raynolds et al.8).



America were certified organic, with higher percentages                  trades directly with smallholder coffee organizations; signs
in Nicaragua and Guatemala21. Organic coffee does not                   contracts that encourage long-term planning and stability;
establish a minimum price paid to producers or exporters,               and provides up to 60% of pre-harvest credit when re-
but sets a premium above that established by the New York               quested26.
Board of Trade. In 2002/2003, a survey of importers re-                    Although low international coffee prices motivated many
ported that organic coffee price premiums in Guatemala                  farmers and roasters to seek Fair Trade certification, supply
averaged an estimated $0.40 lb - 1 above the market, and                continues to outpace demand, and only 20–25% of Fair
in Nicaragua and El Salvador they were $0.25 lb - 1 and                 Trade certified coffee receives a premium. Recently, the
$0.30 lb - 1, respectively21. Globally, an estimated 52% of             USA, a latecomer to Fair Trade certification, has posted
the coffee produced by certified Fair Trade cooperatives is              exponential growth rates7. The USA is now the largest Fair
also organic22.                                                         Trade certified coffee market in the world (almost 24,000
                                                                        metric tons per year in 2006), even though this only
FairTrade                                                               amounts to 3% of the entirety of the US market27.
                                                                        According to TransFair USA, since 1998 74.3 million lb
In contrast to organic, Fair Trade certification specifically
                                                                        of Fair Trade certified coffee have been sold, and these
focuses on smallholder producer organizations, and the
                                                                        sales have contributed to a cumulative total of $60.4 million
relations, prices and standards associated with the trade
                                                                        in price premiums above conventional coffee prices22.
process23. Fair Trade advocates believe that fairer trade
can lead to individual and collective empowerment if it
follows standards and enforcement mechanisms that sup-
port human rights, dignity and sustainable development24.
                                                                        Bird Friendly, Rainforest Alliance and Utz
‘Empowerment’ can be referred to as the ability of indi-
                                                                        certified coffees
viduals and/or groups to act on their own in order to                   Shade coffee certifications seek to reward coffee growers
achieve their self-defined goals25. Fair Trade originated                that manage their plantations in a way that supports the
as a solidarity movement that supported partnerships be-                conservation of tropical species and habitats, with an
tween northern social justice advocates and impoverished                emphasis on maintaining a diversified shade tree canopy
southern producers5,6. After these initiatives saw significant           (instead of managing ‘full sun’ plantations that have no
growth in the 1980s, leaders in the movement decided to                 shade trees)28–31. Shade coffee certifications have struggled
establish standards and certification mechanisms that would              to compete with other labels, and continue to account for
allow them to expand the volumes of fairly traded goods.                market segments smaller than Fair Trade or organic7,32. The
These efforts were consolidated in the early 21st century,              dominant labels for shade certification have been The
when the Fair Trade Labeling Organization (FLO) was                     Rainforest Alliance (RA) label and Smithsonian Migratory
established5. FLO establishes standards and certifies                    Bird Center’s Bird Friendlyä coffee. Smithsonian also
producers, organizations and traders that pay minimum                   requires organic certification, which might result in higher
prices; provides a price premium for social development;                ecological standards than RA33–35.
Effects of Fair Trade and organic certifications on small-scale coffee farmer households                                    239
   RA’s certification standards include using minimum              of small-scale coffee farming households and how these
levels of native shade tree biodiversity, limiting the use of     are affected by certified coffee markets. The concept of
highly toxic agro-chemicals, maintaining a healthy working        livelihoods, which has been extensively applied in devel-
and living environment for workers and enforcing national         opment studies49, can be defined as ‘comprising people,
labor laws36. Critics of RA claim that environmental              their capabilities and their means of living (e.g., food,
standards are lower than those required by certified organic       income and assets)’50, and how they make this living mean-
coffee and that social development criteria are below the         ingful51. Our analysis was guided by a political ecology
social objectives of Fair Trade37.                                approach, with a focus on rural livelihoods. Political eco-
   Utz certified (formerly Utz Kapeh) was launched in 1997         logical perspectives have focused on livelihoods to analyze
by Royal Ahold, a Netherlands-based supermarket com-              the social reproduction of farmer communities in devel-
pany. It seeks to integrate improved agricultural practices       oping countries, and how these are affected by social and
through the ‘Euro-Retailer Produce Working Group-                 ecological processes associated with natural resources
Good Agricultural Practices’ (EUREP-GAP) with Social              access, governance and management52–54. Although poli-
Accountability International’s (SAI) 8000 social condition        tical ecology argues for the need to examine social and
guidelines. EUREP-GAP certifies farms for ‘good agricul-           ecological processes across multiple geographic scales
tural practices’38, whereas SAI offers a certification to          (e.g., local, national and global)55–58, this paper focused
ensure adequate working conditions for laborers39. The            mainly on the household and community levels (local/
initial certification criteria were developed in collaboration     regional). However, our research does address several
with a number of large coffee estates in Guatemala36.             points of interaction at broader scales, primarily through
According to its representative in Guatemala, interviewed         our discussion of second- and third-level cooperative
in 2004, Utz certified saw a tenfold increase in global sales,     organizations in different countries, and their international
from 2000 certified tons of coffee in 2002 to 21,000 tons          social networks. Our findings also provide insights into the
in 2004.                                                          local- and regional-level responses of households and
                                                                  cooperatives to globally driven events, such as the inter-
Assessing the effects of sustainable coffee                       national coffee price crisis23.
certification                                                        Furthermore, our analysis of household livelihood
                                                                  strategies and their relationship to the coffee commodity
Several macro-level studies have described sustainable            chain connects our research to debates on the governance of
coffee certifications7,8,36 and documented premiums where          global value chains59,60. An in-depth examination of coffee
certified producers received between US$0.05 lb - 1 and            household livelihood conditions and strategies, as well as
US$0.50 lb - 1 above non-certified growers21. Other scholars       their relationship to cooperatives, complements the global
have developed empirically rich ethnographic studies on           value chain literature on coffee. With a few notable ex-
how international certification systems are translated into        ceptions (see Daviron and Ponte61), this body of work has
the daily lives of small-scale farmer communities and             focused primarily on regulations, value-added strategies
cultures40–45. Most of this research agrees that higher prices,   and rent appropriations62–64. This paper contributes an in-
training and more connections to international networks are       depth assessment of locally situated social and economic
some of the advantages for farmers and cooperatives that          impacts resulting from participation in certified or conven-
sell to Fair Trade and organic markets37,41,42,46. Some of the    tional coffee value chains. Although a deeper discussion
disadvantages include high costs of certification; additional      of our results, in terms of global value chain analysis, is
labor investments and lower yields for organic production;        beyond the scope of this paper, we believe that our findings
the need for increasingly sophisticated record keeping;           will inform future examinations of livelihood outcomes
higher quality standards; and the purchase and payment of         associated with the producer end of the value chain.
certified coffee later in the season6,41,47. Conventional
coffee, which refers to all non-certified forms of coffee
production and trade, is generally sold faster and with far       Research design and methods
fewer quality requirements23. Several studies have docu-          Field surveys were conducted between November 2004 and
mented the economic (e.g., higher prices and financing) and        December 2005, providing data for the 2003/2004 coffee
social (e.g., links to support networks and social investment)    harvest. In each country we worked with researcher teams
benefits of Fair Trade to farmer cooperatives9, but only a         that were based in-country. Two methodological workshops
few have analyzed these issues at the household level in          were held previous to field research to develop standardized
an international comparative study (but see Jaffee41 and          data collection protocols. Countries, team members and
Arnould et al.48).                                                cooperatives were chosen based on previous collaborative
                                                                  history among researchers, a team’s established relationship
                                                                  with coffee farmers and cooperatives, and a cooperative’s
Research Approach and Methods
                                                                  willingness to participate.
Of particular importance to our research was to develop              Our research design was a stratified survey, with
a better understanding of the current livelihood strategies       country and certification type as main strata. We chose
240                                                                                                                         ´
                                                                                                                      V.E. Mendez et al.
Table 2. Number of cases and sample sizes for household surveys per certification type and country.
                                                                             Number of               Mean area
                                                    Number                   household              under coffee             Mean coffee
                                                                                                                  1
Country              Certification                   of cases                  surveys             cultivation (ha)             yield

Guatemala            Non-certified                   1 cooperative                30                     2.1                      703
                     Fair Trade                     1 cooperative                30                     1.3                      960
                     Fair Trade and organic         2 cooperatives               60                     1.4                      808
El Salvador          Non-certified                   1   cooperative              25                     1.1                      100
                     Fair Trade                     1   cooperative              30                     2.3                      766
                     Organic                        1   cooperative              30                     3.6                      418
                     Fair Trade and organic         1   cooperative              11                     3.8                      275
Nicaragua            Non-certified                   1   cooperative              17                     1.8                     1760
                     Fair Trade                     2   cooperatives             31                     2.7                     1111
                     Organic                        1   cooperative              39                     5.1                      696
                     Fair Trade and organic         1   cooperative              14                     3.8                      419
Mexico               Non-certified                   2 cooperatives               55                     2.5                     1046
                     Fair Trade and organic         3 cooperatives               97                     3.2                      501
                     Totals for the study:          18 cooperatives             469
1
    For collectively managed cooperatives we recorded the average area allocated per household.


representative cooperatives from a limited pool of organi-             key informants (such as personnel from organizations
zations that researchers had a relationship with. This                 working in the community)66–68. Within countries, house-
limited the strength of our sampling design, and increased             holds were located in different regions, but had similar farm
the stratification effect, and limited the number of cases              sizes (Table 2). In the case of collective cooperatives in El
within each certification type, which can result in a loss of           Salvador, we calculated area allocations per household as
precision of the statistical analyses65. A similar design was          equivalent to tenured land-holdings. Considering that the
also used by the only other quantitative analyses of Fair              sample consisted of small-scale producers and coopera-
Trade coffee certification we are aware of48. We chose to               tives, we expected coffee yields and production practices
do this because, due to the sensitive nature of some of the            to be relatively similar across countries and across cer-
survey questions (e.g., income and food security), it would            tifications.
have been difficult to survey cooperatives that the teams did
not know. For organic and Fair Trade certified cooperatives
we sought producer organizations with members that had
                                                                       Variable selection, processing and
been producing and selling organic and/or Fair Trade coffee
                                                                       statistical analysis
for at least 3 years prior to the study. After establishing            Variables were selected based on their relevance to house-
collaboration agreements with cooperatives, households                 hold livelihood strategies (e.g., demographics, sources of
were randomly selected from lists of cooperative members.              income, capacities, networks and migration)51 and those
As our main criteria, we attempted to sample a target                  that could demonstrate tangible benefits from certification
population of between 25 and 30 households per certifi-                 (e.g., gross coffee revenue, education of children, increased
cation type per country (Table 2). However, this proved                food security and linkages to support networks)9,41,69.
difficult in some instances, due to a lack of cooperatives              Although we included questions related to the costs of
that met the criteria (e.g., at the time, there was only one           certification in our survey, we were unable to collect
Fair Trade/organic certified cooperative in El Salvador). In            consistent information on this variable at the household
total, we collected data from 469 households that were part            level. Most individual members had limited knowledge or
of 18 cooperatives.                                                    confused perceptions, and board members were reluctant
   We defined a ‘household’ as a single or extended family              to share specific figures.
living in the same residence. Household questionnaires                    In cooperatives where land is collectively owned
were a combination of close-ended and open-ended                       (all three certified cooperatives in El Salvador, and the
questions. Household-level data were collected through an              organic cooperative in Nicaragua), we divided coffee
identical questionnaire for both certified and non-certified             production volumes and land areas under coffee cultivation
households, except for the additional questions that only              by the number of cooperative members, in order to obtain
pertained to certified households (e.g., certification type,             volume and land area figures for each household. These
premium amount, etc.). We triangulated this information                figures were used to calculate gross coffee revenue and
with individual semi-structured and informal interviews,               yield per hectare figures for households in collective co-
focus groups with cooperative board members and other                  operatives. While we recognize that these calculations may
Effects of Fair Trade and organic certifications on small-scale coffee farmer households                                     241
not be perfectly accurate (for example, some households           ranges instead of means and standard deviations. Catego-
may spend more time working in the collective coffee              rical variables (household savings and credit, food security,
plantation and thus earn more income from coffee), we are         and migration) were analyzed using Pearson’s chi-square
confident that they are comparable to the volume, gross            test with PO0.05 considered significant. For all variables,
revenue and yield figures for the rest of the households in        we compared certifications both for the entire sample and
the study.                                                        within each of the countries.
   In order to compare prices, we calculated a weighted
average price for each household, because households that
sell certified coffee often sell part of their harvest at the      Results
certified price and part of the harvest at the conventional
price. We calculated weighted price as
                                                                  Cooperatives and households in coffee regions
                                                                  of Central America and Mexico
(farm gate price for certified organic coffee) *
                                                                  We found three types of cooperatives in our research. First-
   (% of coffee harvest sold at organic price)                    level cooperatives were made up of individual members
  + (farm gate price for certified Fair Trade coffee) *           (individuals and/or families), which organized through
     (% of coffee harvest sold at Fair Trade price)               different processes, such as agrarian reforms or voluntary
                                                                  initiatives. Within the first level cooperative category, we
  + (farm gate price for conventional coffee) *
                                                                  worked with two different types. The first type comprises
     (% of coffee harvest sold at conventional price)             cooperatives, consisting of individual farmers/families,
  + (farm gate price for certified Fair Trade=organic coffee) *   who own their land and form a cooperative to facilitate
     (% of coffee harvest sold at Fair Trade=organic price)       marketing, technical assistance, credit and/or interactions
                                                                  with external actors. These farmers continue to manage
This more accurately reflected the prices that farmers             their farms individually, but follow cooperative guidelines
obtain at the farm gate. Per household gross revenue from         (e.g., organic certification rules). The second type com-
coffee sales was calculated as the volume sold per house-         prises collectively managed plantations, where members do
hold multiplied by the price received for that volume. In         not have individual ownership of land, but have rights or
some coffee cooperatives, such as the Fair Trade and              access to land allocations (i.e., residential and agricultural
organic cooperatives in El Salvador, the coffee plantation        plot assignations), as part of their membership. These
is collectively owned. In these cases, gross coffee revenues      cooperatives are managed as a collective and run by an
were divided equally among member households for the              elected board of directors. The second-level cooperatives
purpose of this analysis.                                         were formed by the union of first-level cooperatives. These
   Information was processed into a database created in           organizations are also called ‘cooperative unions’ or
Foxpro for Windows. Statistical analyses were run using           ‘federations’. The third-level cooperatives may include
SPSS software, versions 16.0 and 17.0. To analyze the             both first- and second-level cooperatives as members, tend
differences in the coffee price, volume, gross revenue and        to have national representation and are sometimes called
education between certifications, we utilized the Kruskal–         ‘confederations’.
Wallis (K–W) non-parametric test. In addition, for coffee            On average, the 469 households we surveyed were made
price, volume and gross revenue, we used the Mann–                up of six members, and had similar educational levels
Whitney U non-parametric test as a post-hoc test for dif-         (O5th grade). Men and women were equally represented
ferences between each pair of certification types, with a          in numbers, and no significant differences were observed in
significance level of P < 0.01, due to the large number of         educational levels by gender. Subsistence agriculture was
pairings. The K–W test was also used to analyze factors           an important livelihood strategy for farmer households. In
that might contribute to food security, including a com-          El Salvador, 42% of the surveyed group produced staple
parison of coffee revenue, food production and number of          foods (primarily corn and beans), buying less than 40% of
income sources between households that did and did not            their annual food budget. In the other three countries, only
experience food shortages. We chose these tests because           10% of households reported producing staple foods, and
the data did not show clear normality or equal variances          these families bought an average of 65% of their annual
(Levene and Kolmogorov–Smirnov tests), and our house-             food budget.
hold samples were uneven for the certification stratum.               The mean area of owned or allocated land for coffee
We were unable to sample for Fair Trade cooperatives              cultivation was 3.2 ha per household (N = 469). Total mean
in Mexico, or organic in Guatemala and Mexico, and the            land areas owned by or allocated to households per country
number of households sampled for each category were also          were 5.7, 3.1, 2.9 and 1.5 ha for Nicaragua, El Salvador,
uneven (see Table 2). The K–W test is a recommended               Mexico and Guatemala, respectively. Within countries, the
alternative to parametric analysis of variance (ANOVA)            farms selected shared comparable geographical conditions.
for populations containing uneven sample sizes70. The             All farms managed shaded plantations of Coffea arabica,
K–W test compares medians instead of means; therefore             and were located at elevations greater than 500 m above
for these variables we report medians and interquartile           sea level. Characterizations of coffee producers in
242                                                                                                             ´
                                                                                                          V.E. Mendez et al.
Mesoamerica have found similar yields and outputs as a            $0.70 per pound of green coffee produced71. However,
result of farm size and grower type71. Our sample was made        most cost studies have been incomplete, since they fail to
up of small-scale farmers and their cooperatives, which           include the costs for coffee maintenance, replanting, tools,
according to Flores et al.71 cultivate less than 3.5 ha of land   harvest interest payments, transport and time invested
per farmer and produce an average of 1100 lb ha - 1, when         in inspections and training73. Subtracting these estimated
coffee is conventionally managed. Average yield for the           minimum farm-level production costs from the gross
entire sample (736 lb ha - 1) was lower than those presented      average price per pound in our sample of $0.78 resulted
by Flores et al.71 (Table 2). Organic yields were lower than      in an estimated average annual net coffee revenue of
conventional yields in Nicaragua and Mexico, but higher in        between $0.28 and $0.08 per lb of coffee. By applying this
Guatemala and El Salvador. Yields are affected by the             net value to the average reported volume sold (1450 lb
management capacity and available resources of farmers            of coffee per year) by the farmers in our sample, we esti-
and cooperatives. Although data comparisons between               mated the net coffee revenue per household per year to
organic and conventional coffee yields are scarce, in most        be in the range between $116 and $406. This range is for
cases organic plantations tend to produce lower yields and        the entire sample and not accounting for differences in
have similar or higher economic costs72. In both El               revenues between certifications. However, it represents an
Salvador and Guatemala, the organic cooperatives were             important figure because it shows how low the annual
larger and had well-established organic management                revenue range from coffee production is for all of these
programs that were more effective than their conventional         farmers, including those that sell all their volumes through
counterparts. In Nicaragua and Mexico, where cooperative          certified channels.
management and size were very similar across certifica-               Farmers generally do not receive payments for all their
tions, organic yields were lower. In these cases, conven-         coffee in one lump sum. Instead, some receive advance
tional farmers were able to increase yields through effective     payment as credit, partial payment upon coffee delivery
synthetic fertilizer and pesticide management.                    and a third final payment. Most receive a single payment
   We asked the households we surveyed to list the                when they sell to intermediaries. Most payments are both
members of their household who generated monetary                 insufficient and poorly timed, leaving a thin (or hungry)
income and to list the types of income-generating activities      season that generally falls between April and August for
undertaken by household members. Half of the members              most coffee regions.
within each household reported generating monetary                   Only 15% of all households interviewed reported
income. The most frequent income-generating activities            having monetary savings, these being most frequent
were coffee sales, coffee-related employment, sales of other      in Nicaragua, and least frequent in El Salvador. In
agricultural crops and non-agricultural employment. Inter-        Guatemala and Mexico, 15 and 16% of households
viewees were asked to estimate the percentage of their            reported having some savings. Forty percent of all
income that they earned from coffee sales, coffee-related         households reported having access to some form of credit,
employment or from other income sources, although not             with a marked difference between countries. Approxi-
all of them provided complete responses to this query             mately 34% of households in the four countries reported at
(n = 300). On average, households reported that coffee            least one member migrating, either within their countries,
sales and coffee-related employment accounted for 67%             or internationally. Mexico (in 30.6% of the sample) and
of their income. Only 37% reported that they earned all of        Nicaragua (28.8%) had the highest emigration rates of the
their income from coffee sales and coffee-related employ-         sample.
ment. We chose to group coffee sales with coffee-related
employment for this analysis because some households in
the study are members of collectively owned cooperatives,
whereby they do not receive income directly from the sale
                                                                  Coffee prices, volumes and gross revenue
of coffee but rather are paid by the cooperative for their        Gross coffee revenue is determined by three factors: price,
work in the collective coffee plantation. Sales of other          total volume (green bean yields) and the proportion of
agricultural crops contributed 15% of household income            volume that is sold through certified channels (and thus
on average, while employment in non-agricultural jobs             receives the certified price). We first examined how cer-
contributed an average of 11%. Non-coffee agricultural            tified cooperatives differ from non-certified cooperatives
employment and income from other sources (primarily               with respect to each of these factors and then look at the
support from older children working away from home)               resulting differences in gross revenue.
comprised an average of 5 and 3% of household income,                Annual international conventional (non-certified) coffee
respectively.                                                     prices averaged $0.72 lb - 1 in 2003/20043. As reported in
   On average, households sold 1450 lb of coffee for the          similar studies, it proved extremely difficult to calculate
2003/2004 harvests. This generated an estimated mean              exactly what price households obtain for their coffee23. The
gross coffee revenue of US$1064 for the season. Previous          different ways in which coffee is sold and the taxes
studies have estimated the monetary costs of production           and discounts that occur in each country were not fully
for smallholders in this region to range from $0.50 to            understood by many of the farmers. To compare the prices
Effects of Fair Trade and organic certifications on small-scale coffee farmer households                                                           243
                                                                                      1
Table 3. Price, volume and coffee revenue medians (interquartile ranges) for conventional and certified coffee, as reported by all
interviewed households in Mexico and Central America (N = 461).
                                                                                                            Fair
                                   Non-certified            Fair Trade              Organic              Trade/organic
                                                                                                                                              4
                                    (n = 124)               (n = 98)               (n = 68)               (n = 175)               K–W test
                          2
Median calculated price             0.51 (0.24)3a           0.68 (0.32)b          0.77 (0.36)c           0.89 (0.32)c      c 2 = 186.98, PO0.001**
 (US$ lb - 1)
Median volume                       700 (1300)a            1094 (1100)b          3550 (3048)b             600 (900)a       c 2 = 51.1, PO0.001**
 in pounds
Median coffee revenue             332.56 (800.06)a       1006.48 (635.80)b    2733.50 (2164.01)c     534.00 (818.16)a      c 2 = 55.78, PO0.001**
 in US$
1
  The K–W test uses medians, and the figures in parentheses are interquartile ranges (analogous to standard deviation for the median).
2
  The calculated price is the median price a household received for their coffee in 2003–2004, weighted by the volumes sold at those
prices.
3
  Medians followed by a different letter are significantly different by the Mann–Whitney U test (PO0.01).
4
  * Difference is significant at the PO0.05 level; ** difference is significant at the PO0.001 level.



                                                     1
Table 4. Median prices (interquartile ranges) by certification and country (N = 461).
                     Median                       Median                                            Median Fair
                  non-certified                  Fair Trade                 Median organic           Trade/organic
                                 2
                calculated price              calculated price             calculated price        calculated price
                                                                                                                                              5
                           -1
Country            (US$ lb )                    (US$ lb - 1)                 (US$ lb - 1)            (US$ lb - 1)                 K–W test
                              3
Guatemala     0.48   (0.95) a, N = 30       0.64 (0.65)b, N = 30                 —               0.81   (0.11)c, N = 57    c 2 = 95.81,   PO0.0001**
                           4                           4                           4                          4
El Salvador   0.51   (0.00) a, N = 25       0.92 (0.00) b, N = 30       1.13 (0.00) c, N = 30    1.06   (0.00) d, N = 11   c 2 = 70.52,   PO0.001**
                                                                                   4                          4
Nicaragua     0.38   (0.39)a, N = 17        0.54 (0.20)a, N = 31        0.77 (0.00) b, N = 38    1.07   (0.00) c, N = 14   c 2 = 70.52,   PO0.001**
Mexico        0.70   (0.27)a, N = 52                 —                           —               1.11   (0.36)b, N = 93     c = 37.30,    PO0.001**
1
  The K–W test uses medians, and the figures in parentheses are interquartile ranges (analogous to standard deviation for the median).
2
  The calculated price is the median price a household received for their coffee in 2003–2004, weighted by the volumes sold at those
prices.
3
  Medians followed by a different letter are significantly different by the Mann–Whitney U test (PO0.01).
4
  Coffee is produced and sold cooperatively; thus all households in these cooperatives receive the same median price.
5
  * Difference is significant at the PO0.05 level; ** difference is significant at the PO0.001 level.




presented in Table 3, we used information gathered through                      in calculated price between certification types in all of the
household surveys and data from first- and second-level                          countries, with households that were members of certified
cooperatives.                                                                   cooperatives receiving higher prices for their coffee
   Calculated prices (the sum of the amount of coffee sold                      (Table 4). Only in the Nicaraguan case were conventional
at each price, multiplied by the % of total coffee sold at this                 and Fair Trade prices not significantly different. Because
price) were significantly higher for all certified sales in                       certification types were only represented by members from
comparison to conventional markets (K–W, c 2 = 186.98,                          one cooperative in several of the countries, we cannot state
df = 3, PO0.0001), with Fair Trade/organic cooperatives                         conclusively that certifications were solely responsible for
receiving the highest price (Table 3). Price differences                        these price differences, as other factors unique to these
between each pair of certifications individually were also                       cooperatives may have contributed to the differences in
significant except between the organic and Fair Trade/                           price. However, because price premiums are generally
organic groups (Table 3).                                                       based on certifications, it is likely that certifications are
   Significant price differences (for both conventional and                      driving these price differences.
certified) were also observed between countries (K–W,                               Volumes of coffee produced and sold were highly vari-
c 2 = 60.3, df = 3, PO0.001), so it is possible that the                        able between households. Fair Trade and organic certified
comparison between certifications was confounded by the                          households produced significantly more coffee than non-
uneven representation of cooperative types in the four                          certified households or households holding both certifi-
countries. Thus, we also compared certified and non-                             cations (Table 3; K–W, c 2 = 51.10, df = 3, PO0.001). It is
certified cooperatives within each of the countries, through                     important to note that these are total volumes, not volumes
a Mann–Whitney U test. There were significant differences                        per area, and they are therefore more reflective of farm
244                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           ´
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        V.E. Mendez et al.




                                                                                                                                           c 2 = 13.862, PO0.001**
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               areas per household than per hectare productivity. The




                                                                                                                                           c 2 = 56.66, PO0.001**
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               organic households and Fair Trade households in this




                                                                                                                                           c 2 = 8.68, PO0.034*
                                                                                                                                           c 2 = 0.474, PO0.491
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               study tended to cultivate more land per household than




                                                                                                                               3
                                                                                                                                K–W test
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               the other two certification groups, which accounts for the
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               higher coffee volumes of the organic households despite
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               their lower per hectare productivity in Nicaragua and
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Mexico.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Gross revenue from coffee was significantly different
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               between households of the four certification types
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               (K–W, c 2 = 55.78, df = 3, PO0.0001), with all certification
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               groups earning higher median revenues than the uncertified

                                                                                                                                           (2170.50)a, N = 14
                                                                                                                                           (795.65)b, N = 57
                                                                                                                                           (471.43)c, N = 11

                                                                                                                                           (899.46), N = 93a
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               group (Table 3). Gross revenues were also significantly
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               different between certification groups when analyzed by
                                                                                                                Trade/organic
                                                                                                                 Median Fair




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               country, with the exception of Mexico where revenues in
                                                                                                                   revenue
                                                                                                                    (US$)




                                                                                                                                                                         The K–W test uses medians, and the figures in parentheses are interquartile ranges (analogous to standard deviation for the median).   the Fair Trade/organic households were similar to those in
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               the non-certified households due to lower coffee production
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               volumes (Table 5).
                                                                                                                                             534.00
                                                                                                                                            1040.92
                                                                                                                                            1076.57
                                                                                                                                             445.65




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  As discussed by Bacon23, certified farmers are usually
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               not able to sell all of their production through certified
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               markets. Reasons for this include quality standards (only
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               the best cherries), limited market demand (as in the case
                                                                                                                                            2733.50 (228.62)b, N = 38




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               of Fair Trade) and cooperative quotas (e.g., distribution of
                                                                                                                                             569.49 (0.00)c, N = 30




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               premiums among the membership). As a result, many
                                                                                                                   Median organic




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               certified coffee farmers are forced to sell a portion of
                                                                                                                                                                         Medians followed by a different letter are significantly different by the Mann–Whitney U test (PO0.01).
                                                                                                                      revenue
      Table 5. Household coffee revenue medians (interquartile ranges) by country and certification (N = 461).




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               their production in the conventional market. Net revenue
                                                                                                                       (US$)

                                                                                                                                                       —


                                                                                                                                                       —




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               generated through certified sales can decrease considerably
                                                                                                                                                                         * Difference is significant at the PO0.05 level; ** difference is significant at the PO0.001 level.




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               when farmers incur the costs of certification, but are not
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               able to sell their entire production at premium certified
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               prices.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Various factors influence the percent of production that
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               households in certified cooperatives are able to sell at
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               certified prices. The Salvadoran Fair Trade cooperative
                                                                                                                                           2158.00 (2120.00)ab, N = 31
                                                                                                                                            603.13 (1030.85)b, N = 30




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               was able to sell all of its production at certified prices
                                                                                                                                           1006.48 (0.00)b, N = 30




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               because of the small number of Fair Trade certified
                                                                                                                   Trade revenue
                                                                                                                    Median Fair




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               cooperatives in this country that produce high-quality
                                                                                                                       (US$)




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               coffee. In the Guatemalan and Nicaraguan cases, Fair Trade
                                                                                                                                                       —
      1




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               certified cooperatives were limited by a higher number of
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Fair Trade cooperatives and higher volumes of production
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               by certified farms. Thus, most of these households sold
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               high proportions of their coffee at conventional prices.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Fair Trade/organic certification showed high proportions
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               of volumes sold at certified prices in all cases, with the
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               exception of Mexico (only 54%). In this case, where
                                                                                                                                           (2668.26)a, N = 17
                                                                                                                                           (389.25) a, N = 30
                                                                                                                                           (384.38)a, N = 25

                                                                                                                                           (937.89)a, N = 52




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               farmers were members of large cooperative unions (up to
                                                                                                                   Median non-certified




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               20,000 members), the amount of coffee sold at certified
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               prices was influenced by coffee quality and the standing
                                                                                                                        revenue

                                                                                                                                           2
                                                                                                                         (US$)




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               of first-level cooperatives within their union. A power
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               struggle was reported between first-level cooperatives and
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               their unions, in which their lobbying capacity with the
                                                                                                                                            271.84
                                                                                                                                            102.50
                                                                                                                                            752.80
                                                                                                                                            561.09




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               union is an important factor determining the proportions of
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               their total production that they are able to sell at certified
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               prices.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  On average, Fair Trade was the certification with the
                                                                                                                                            El Salvador




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               lowest proportion of coffee sold at certified prices, with
                                                                                                                                            Guatemala

                                                                                                                                            Nicaragua
                                                                                                                                Country




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               60% of total volume sold as Fair Trade. The two certified
                                                                                                                                            Mexico




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               organic cooperatives sold almost 100% of their certified
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               coffee at certified prices. Fair Trade/organic certification
                                                                                                                                                                         1
                                                                                                                                                                                                              2
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             3
Effects of Fair Trade and organic certifications on small-scale coffee farmer households                                                               245
% Volume Sold as Certified   100.00                                                          Food security
                              80.00                                                          Household food security has been used extensively as a
                                                                               Guatemala     measure of welfare by NGOs, governments and the UN.
                              60.00                                            El Salvador   At the 1996 World Food Summit, the Food and Agriculture
                                                                               Nicaragua     Organization of the United Nations defined food security
                              40.00                                            Mexico
                                                                                             as ‘all people, at all times, have physical and economic
                                                                               Average
                                                                                             access to sufficient safe and nutritious food to meet their
                              20.00
                                                                                             dietary needs and food preferences for a healthy and active
                               0.00
                                                                                             life’74. Food security results from many livelihood factors,
                                      Fair Trade   Organic (N=68)   Org & FT                 including food production, income to purchase food and
                                       (N=91)                       (N=177)                  social safety nets75.
                                                   Certification                                To explore the issue of food security, we asked families
Figure 1. Percentage of total volume of coffee produced by                                   if they experienced times when they felt unable to meet
certified households, which was sold through certified channels,                               their basic food needs. Sixty-three percent of the house-
for the 2003/2004 harvest.                                                                   holds interviewed reported that they did struggle to meet
                                                                                             their basic food needs. In our sample, households associ-
                                                                                             ated with certifications did not fare any better in terms of
                                                                                             food security. Our statistical analyses of the entire sample
sold an average of 87% of total coffee produced at certified
                                                                                             showed significant associations between food security
prices (Figure 1).
                                                                                             (using household’s reports of difficulties in meeting basic
                                                                                             food needs as a proxy) and certification, but with a higher
Household savings and credit                                                                 percentage of households in all certified groups reporting
                                                                                             difficulties meeting food needs (Pearson, c 2 = 22.06, df = 3,
Households in our survey population were asked whether
                                                                                             PO0.001) than the non-certified group. When each country
or not they had any monetary savings. While it is generally
uncommon for small-scale coffee-producing households to                                      was examined separately, only in Guatemala was there a
have savings, the percentage of certified households with                                     significant association between certification and food
savings (17%) was significantly higher than the figure for                                     security (Pearson, c 2 = 21.78, df = 2, PO0.001), again
non-certified households (10%) when all certified house-                                       with more certified households reporting difficulties meet-
holds were combined into a single category (Pearson,                                         ing their food needs.
c 2 = 4.113, df = 1, PO0.043). This difference, however,                                        We also asked households to estimate what percentage
                                                                                             of their food they produced on farm and what percentage
was influenced by the households in the Fair Trade co-
                                                                                             they purchased. There was no significant association
operative in Nicaragua, where 55% of respondents reported
having savings. This is a much higher percentage than any                                    between certification and self-sufficiency in food pro-
of the other certified groups and countries. There were no                                    duction (K–W, c 2 = 0.246, df = 1, PO0.620), with all
significant differences between certified and non-certified                                     certification groups purchasing the majority of their food.
households in any of the other countries.                                                    On average, households purchased 61% of their food.
   Credit access showed a similar pattern as savings;                                        We recognize, however, that food production is only one
however, the association between credit access and cer-                                      livelihood factor that may contribute to food security. To
                                                                                             tease out some of the reasons why households may or may
tification when all certified households were combined into
                                                                                             not be able to meet their food needs, we also examined the
a single group was not quite statistically significant
(Pearson, c 2 = 3.26, df = 1, PO0.073). Overall, 43% of                                      relationships between reported ability to meet food needs
all certified households reported having access to credit,                                    and gross coffee revenue and number of income sources.
compared to 34% of non-certified households. When                                             There was no significant difference in median gross coffee
certification types were considered separately, however,                                      revenue between those households that did and did not
there was a significant association between certification                                      report difficulty meeting their food needs (K–W, c 2 = 0.16,
type and credit access (Pearson, c 2 = 9.81, df = 3, PO                                      df = 1, PO0.690). Having more sources of income was,
                                                                                             however, associated with being able to meet food needs
0.020). Higher percentages of Fair Trade (42%) and Fair
                                                                                             (K–W, c 2 = 7.97, df = 1, PO0.005). Households that did
Trade/organic (48%) households reported having access
to credit than organic (30%) and non-certified households                                     not experience food shortages reported an average of 2.5
(34%). This is not surprising given that Fair Trade contracts                                income sources, compared with an average of 2.2 income
often include pre-financing for producers, whereas organic                                    sources for households that did report food shortages.
and conventional coffee buyers do not provide this benefit.
This pattern held when each of the countries was examined
                                                                                             Education
separately, with the exception of Guatemala where nearly
all of the non-certified households reported having access                                    We measured differences in educational levels by the
to credit.                                                                                   percent of school-age children in a household that were
246                                                                                                           ´
                                                                                                        V.E. Mendez et al.
reported to be currently in school. Children were defined as    (ii) second-level cooperatives; (iii) national organizations
of school age if they were over 6 and under 18 years old.      or institutions, including NGOs and government insti-
We focused on the current education status of children         tutions; (iv) international organizations or institutions,
because coffee certifications are relatively new, and could     including NGOs and donors; (v) religious groups, mostly
not be expected to affect the educational outcomes of          Evangelical and Catholic church groups; and (vi) local/
adults48. The median for all certification types was approxi-   community groups and committees. Households from Fair
mately 50% of school-age children in school, with no           Trade/organic cooperatives most frequently reported associ-
significant difference between certification types (K–W,         ation with organizations and networks. These households
c 2 = 1.94, df = 3, PO0.58). In none of the four countries     cited second-level cooperatives most frequently (50%),
did the percentage of school-age children per family           followed by national (46%) and international organizations
attending school differ significantly between certification      (44%). Both conventional and Fair Trade households cited
types and non-certified households.                             international organizations most frequently (26 and 28%,
                                                               respectively), while certified organic cooperatives cited
                                                               national organizations most frequently (27%).
Migration
Migration can be viewed as a plausible strategy that           Knowledge of certification, accountability
rural households undertake to support their livelihoods by     and power dynamics
generating income outside of the region. However, some
authors argue that migration can have negative effects on      We found that there was still much confusion among
rural communities, as it eventually leads to a depletion of    farmers and cooperative members about what certifications
human capital, which is necessary to reproduce existing        are, and cooperative member’s understanding of what it
livelihoods76,77. In the case of Fair Trade/organic coffee,    means to ‘be certified’. This has also been documented in
some studies and certification advocates have suggested         previous studies9, and was consistent with the data provided
that certification has led to decreased migration from coffee   by all of the certifiers and some of the other actors inter-
regions77. Hence, our main research objective related to       viewed. In general, farmers understood organic certification
migration was to examine if certified cooperatives were         much better than Fair Trade. Organic has clear regulations
experiencing a lower incidence of migration than uncerti-      regarding agricultural practices, which farmers found easy
fied farmers. To analyze the effects of certification on         to comprehend. Understanding Fair Trade is more challen-
emigration, we compared the percentages of households          ging, since its standards are based on notions of justice
from whom at least one family member had emigrated             and empowerment23,80. On the other hand, certifications
between certified and non-certified groups. ‘Emigration’         were better understood by board members of first-level
was defined as leaving the home community in order to           cooperatives, and fully understood by staff and board
work. There was some association between certification          members of second-level cooperatives.
and emigration when certification types were compared
individually, with 37% of non-certified households, 31% of
Fair Trade households, 48% of organic households and           Discussion
27% of Fair Trade/organic households having had a
member migrate (Pearson, c 2 = 11.01, df = 3, PO0.12).
                                                               Effects of certifications on household livelihoods
However, when all certification types were combined into        Most studies on coffee certifications support our results that
one group, there was no significant association between         Fair Trade, organic or Fair Trade/organic certified co-
certification and migration (Pearson, c 2 = 0.92, df = 3,       operatives obtain higher coffee prices. Examples of this
PO0.34). Neither was there any clear association when          research include work in Nicaragua23,80,81, Guatemala9,
the data were examined on a country-by-country basis. It is    Mexico9,40,41,43 and El Salvador46. Price differences were
unlikely that certifications were contributing to any           also observed between countries, which relate to the qual-
differences in emigration in our sample.                       ity of the coffee (as measured by cupping), but also to
                                                               ‘symbolic quality’ associated with the marketing of a
                                                               ‘country’ brand or image61. Households generally have
Participation in social and support networks
                                                               very little control over these quality factors.
Through social networks, which can range from the local to        Certifications had a positive effect on the incidence
the international, individuals, households and communities     of household savings, especially in the Nicaraguan Fair
can expand their access to resources and other opportu-        Trade cooperative. Fair Trade and Fair Trade/organic
nities78. For example, Fair Trade certified cooperatives in     certifications improved credit access, although credit was
El Salvador received important donations from organiz-         usually in the form of pre-financing for coffee and not in
ations associated with Fair Trade during the 2003 earth-       the form of loans to households. This is consistent with
quakes79. In our sample, households reported being             other studies reporting that Fair Trade/organic certification
linked with at least the six following types of support        improves credit access and financial stability for co-
organizations or networks: (i) first-level cooperatives;        operative organizations23,37,41, although not necessarily
Effects of Fair Trade and organic certifications on small-scale coffee farmer households in Central America and Mexico
Effects of Fair Trade and organic certifications on small-scale coffee farmer households in Central America and Mexico
Effects of Fair Trade and organic certifications on small-scale coffee farmer households in Central America and Mexico
Effects of Fair Trade and organic certifications on small-scale coffee farmer households in Central America and Mexico
Effects of Fair Trade and organic certifications on small-scale coffee farmer households in Central America and Mexico

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Effects of Fair Trade and organic certifications on small-scale coffee farmer households in Central America and Mexico

  • 1. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems: 25(3); 236–251 doi:10.1017/S1742170510000268 Effects of Fair Trade and organic certifications on small-scale coffee farmer households in Central America and Mexico V. Ernesto Mendez1,*, Christopher M. Bacon2, Meryl Olson3, Seth Petchers4, Doribel Herrador5, ´ Cecilia Carranza6, Laura Trujillo7, Carlos Guadarrama-Zugasti7, Antonio Cordon8, ´ 8 and Angel Mendoza 1 Environmental Program and Department of Plant and Soil Science, The University of Vermont, 153 So. Prospect St., Burlington, VT 05401, USA 2 Department of Geography, 513 McCone Hall, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-4740, USA 3 Department of Plant and Soil Science, Hills Agricultural Bldg, 105 Carrigan Drive, The University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA 4 1 South Ivy Street, Denver, CO 80224, USA 5 University of Barcelona, Calle Balmes 17-2a-2, Terrassa 08225, Barcelona, Spain 6 ´ ´ Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, Unidad de Planificacion—Area de Economıa Ambiental, Carretera a Santa Tecla Km. 5 1/2, Calle y Colonia Las Mercedes, Edificio MARN, San Salvador, El Salvador 7 Universidad Autonoma de Chapingo, CRUO, Km. 3 Carretera Huatusco-Jalapa, Huatusco, Veracruz, Mexico 8 ´ Asociacion CRECER, 20 Calle 14-19 zona 10, Guatemala Ciudad, Guatemala *Corresponding author: emendez@uvm.edu Accepted 13 April 2010; First published online 4 June 2010 Research Paper Abstract We provide a review of sustainable coffee certifications and results from a quantitative analysis of the effects of Fair Trade, organic and combined Fair Trade/organic certifications on the livelihood strategies of 469 households and 18 cooperatives of Central America and Mexico. Certified households were also compared with a non-certified group in each country. To analyze the differences in coffee price, volume, gross revenue and education between certifications, we used the Kruskal– Wallis (K–W) non-parametric test and the Mann–Whitney U non-parametric test as a post-hoc procedure. Household savings, credit, food security and incidence of migration were analyzed through Pearson’s chi-square test. Our study corroborated the conditions of economic poverty among small-scale coffee farmer households in Central America and Mexico. All certifications provided a higher price per pound and higher gross coffee revenue than non-certified coffee. However, the average volumes of coffee sold by individual households were low, and many certified farmers did not sell their entire production at certified prices. Certifications did not have a discernable effect on other livelihood-related variables, such as education, and incidence of migration at the household level, although they had a positive influence on savings and credit. Sales to certified markets offer farmers and cooperatives better prices, but the contribution derived from these premiums has limited effects on household livelihoods. This demonstrates that certifications will not single- handedly bring significant poverty alleviation to most coffee-farming families. Although certified coffee markets alone will not resolve the livelihood challenges faced by smallholder households, they could still contribute to broad-based sustainable livelihoods, rural development and conservation processes in coffee regions. This can be done by developing more active partnerships between farmers, cooperatives, certifications and environmental and rural development organ- izations and researchers in coffee regions. Certifications, especially Fair Trade/organic, have proven effective in supporting capacity building and in serving as networks that leverage global development funding for small-scale coffee-producing households. Key words: farmer cooperatives, political ecology, rural livelihoods, coffee crisis, alternative markets, sustainable coffee # Cambridge University Press 2010
  • 2. Effects of Fair Trade and organic certifications on small-scale coffee farmer households 237 Introduction “gourmet” or “premium” coffee, specialty coffees are made from exceptional beans grown only in ideal coffee- The coffee price crisis starting in the early 1990s, and producing climates. They tend to feature distinctive flavors, deepening between 1999 and 2003, had enormous social and which are shaped by the unique characteristics of the soil economic impacts on coffee producers around the world1,2. that produces them’10. Under the specialty coffee umbrella, Between 1989 and 2004, green coffee prices fell from certified coffees are those which receive a certificate or US$1.20 lb - 1 to between US$0.45 lb - 1 and US$0.65 lb - 1. label from a third-party, independent agency11, such as Although prices have rebounded to levels consistent with certified Fair Trade (e.g., FLO label) or certified organic the market averages during the previous 50 years (generally (e.g., USDA or Naturland labels). ‘Sustainable coffee between US$1.00 lb - 1 and US$1.25 lb - 1)3, the conse- certification’ is an umbrella term encompassing several quences of the price crash, and the chronic poverty that types of certifications, and combinations of certifications already existed, remain. In other words, even though prices that explicitly address social and environmental concerns have recovered, the coffee crisis continues4,5. and standards. Specialty and sustainable coffee markets In the midst of this situation, great expectations were have expanded rapidly with increased consumer awareness placed on the role of several ‘sustainable coffee’ certifi- regarding issues of quality, social equity, taste, health and cation initiatives, as key alternatives for farmers to confront environment12,13. These trends are evident in the expand- the crisis6. Certification systems claim to offer a com- ing retail market values for the specialty coffee market bination of benefits including higher and more stable prices segment, which has increased from less than $4 billion in to farmers, and increased market access and technical the early 1990s to over $11 billion in 200614. As of 2004, assistance. In turn, farmers and their organizations must about 10% of global coffee exports could be considered meet standards and subject themselves to inspections. As specialty coffee, and of these an estimated 20% (or 2% the number of certification initiatives increases, and con- of the global supply) carried some type of certification sumers become more aware of different certification (Table 1). The percentage of specialty and sustainable options, there is a growing concern to accurately document coffees exported from Central America is significantly the real impact of these alternatives on coffee producers above the global average. During the 2002/2003 harvest, and their families. Recent research on sustainable coffee an estimated 6% of the region’s total exports were sold certification points to differentiated impacts on growers for into organic (1.5%), Fair Trade (3.6%) and Rainforest each type of certification7,8. These studies provide impor- Alliance (0.75%) certifications15. Although small, this tant comparative examinations of certification standards certified market segment continues to grow rapidly, with and practices, often focusing on the macro-impacts of each annual rates ranging from 10 to over 30%, depending on program. However, most lack household- and community- the year and the certification program6,16. If we expand the level data that document the perceived benefits and limi- 2002/2003 market figures to include Mexico, account for tations, as expressed by growers and their families9. the rapid growth rates among these certification programs The general objective of this research was to analyze and document the presence of newer sustainable coffee the effects of Fair Trade and organic certifications on the certification programs (e.g., Utz certified and Starbucks livelihoods of coffee producer households of Central CAFE Practices), as of 2003/2004, these certified coffees America and Mexico. Our specific objectives were: (1) to accounted for 8–13% of the region’s coffee production. provide a critical review of the different types of sustain- able coffee certifications; (2) to analyze the effects of Fair Trade, organic and combined Fair Trade/organic certifi- Certified organic coffee cations on the livelihood strategies of coffee-producing Organic certification addresses standards that regulate the households in Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala coffee production process. Although there are variations and Nicaragua) and Mexico, including social (e.g., social between certifiers, most organic standards include the fol- networks) and economic (e.g., gross coffee revenue) lowing: ‘ecological’ management of farms; soil conser- variables. This information was used to discuss the current vation practices; abstention from the use of synthetic and potential benefits and limitations of these certifications fertilizers, pesticides and genetically modified crops; and as a means to support the livelihoods of coffee-producing intensive on-farm record keeping8,17,18. Organic certifi- households. cation also establishes a separate chain of custody ensuring that certified organic food is separated from conventional products in any processing stages. Review of Sustainable Certification Organic agriculture has grown quickly in Latin Initiatives American, expanding from almost 4.9 million ha of cer- tified organic land in 1998, to 5.8 million ha by 200419,20. The rise of specialty coffee and sustainability Expanded production is associated with increasing demand certifications in northern markets, including a 20% growth rate in the The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) volume of organic coffee imports to the USA, since 200416. defines specialty coffee as follows: ‘Sometimes called In 2002/2003, more than 2% of the coffee lands in Central
  • 3. 238 ´ V.E. Mendez et al. Table 1. Differentiated and certified coffee in relation to total volumes sold worldwide (2003–2004). Volume Market segment (metric tons) % of total Source Conventionally traded coffee 4,659,522 90.70 This table Estimated exported volume of differentiated coffee 480,000 9.30 Lewin et al.2 Total green coffee exported 5,139,522 100 ICO3 Certified coffee exports organic 26,400 0.51 Ponte7 Fair Trade (of which 14,642 is also organic) 28,283 0.55 TransFair USA22 Shade grown 660 0.01 Ponte7 Rainforest alliance 10,000 0.19 Courville11 Utz Kapeh 14,000 0.27 Courville11 Estimated total certified coffee 65,702 1.28 This table (13.7% of differentiated coffee is also certified) Most data refer to 2003. Fair Trade lb, converted to metric tons based on 2.2 lb = 1 kg; 1000 kg = 1 metric ton. Data from TransFair reported originally by FLO. The organic and shade grown data are from Ponte7 and Fair Trade data are from this table. The estimated 10% growth rate is taken from Ponte7. While Ponte considered the overlap between total fair trade production and the 52% that is also certified organic, this summary assumes that the organic total estimated by Ponte excludes the Fair Trade organic coffee. This table is a new estimate addressing the segments in the global coffee trade as of 2003. According to Raynolds et al.8, Utz Kapeh, Rainforest Alliance and Bird Friendly certified farms have all have substantially increased their production by 2004; however, these three certifications systems report the total volumes of coffee produced on certified farms although much of this coffee is still exported as conventional coffee and not necessarily purchased under these terms (see Table 3 in Raynolds et al.8). America were certified organic, with higher percentages trades directly with smallholder coffee organizations; signs in Nicaragua and Guatemala21. Organic coffee does not contracts that encourage long-term planning and stability; establish a minimum price paid to producers or exporters, and provides up to 60% of pre-harvest credit when re- but sets a premium above that established by the New York quested26. Board of Trade. In 2002/2003, a survey of importers re- Although low international coffee prices motivated many ported that organic coffee price premiums in Guatemala farmers and roasters to seek Fair Trade certification, supply averaged an estimated $0.40 lb - 1 above the market, and continues to outpace demand, and only 20–25% of Fair in Nicaragua and El Salvador they were $0.25 lb - 1 and Trade certified coffee receives a premium. Recently, the $0.30 lb - 1, respectively21. Globally, an estimated 52% of USA, a latecomer to Fair Trade certification, has posted the coffee produced by certified Fair Trade cooperatives is exponential growth rates7. The USA is now the largest Fair also organic22. Trade certified coffee market in the world (almost 24,000 metric tons per year in 2006), even though this only FairTrade amounts to 3% of the entirety of the US market27. According to TransFair USA, since 1998 74.3 million lb In contrast to organic, Fair Trade certification specifically of Fair Trade certified coffee have been sold, and these focuses on smallholder producer organizations, and the sales have contributed to a cumulative total of $60.4 million relations, prices and standards associated with the trade in price premiums above conventional coffee prices22. process23. Fair Trade advocates believe that fairer trade can lead to individual and collective empowerment if it follows standards and enforcement mechanisms that sup- port human rights, dignity and sustainable development24. Bird Friendly, Rainforest Alliance and Utz ‘Empowerment’ can be referred to as the ability of indi- certified coffees viduals and/or groups to act on their own in order to Shade coffee certifications seek to reward coffee growers achieve their self-defined goals25. Fair Trade originated that manage their plantations in a way that supports the as a solidarity movement that supported partnerships be- conservation of tropical species and habitats, with an tween northern social justice advocates and impoverished emphasis on maintaining a diversified shade tree canopy southern producers5,6. After these initiatives saw significant (instead of managing ‘full sun’ plantations that have no growth in the 1980s, leaders in the movement decided to shade trees)28–31. Shade coffee certifications have struggled establish standards and certification mechanisms that would to compete with other labels, and continue to account for allow them to expand the volumes of fairly traded goods. market segments smaller than Fair Trade or organic7,32. The These efforts were consolidated in the early 21st century, dominant labels for shade certification have been The when the Fair Trade Labeling Organization (FLO) was Rainforest Alliance (RA) label and Smithsonian Migratory established5. FLO establishes standards and certifies Bird Center’s Bird Friendlyä coffee. Smithsonian also producers, organizations and traders that pay minimum requires organic certification, which might result in higher prices; provides a price premium for social development; ecological standards than RA33–35.
  • 4. Effects of Fair Trade and organic certifications on small-scale coffee farmer households 239 RA’s certification standards include using minimum of small-scale coffee farming households and how these levels of native shade tree biodiversity, limiting the use of are affected by certified coffee markets. The concept of highly toxic agro-chemicals, maintaining a healthy working livelihoods, which has been extensively applied in devel- and living environment for workers and enforcing national opment studies49, can be defined as ‘comprising people, labor laws36. Critics of RA claim that environmental their capabilities and their means of living (e.g., food, standards are lower than those required by certified organic income and assets)’50, and how they make this living mean- coffee and that social development criteria are below the ingful51. Our analysis was guided by a political ecology social objectives of Fair Trade37. approach, with a focus on rural livelihoods. Political eco- Utz certified (formerly Utz Kapeh) was launched in 1997 logical perspectives have focused on livelihoods to analyze by Royal Ahold, a Netherlands-based supermarket com- the social reproduction of farmer communities in devel- pany. It seeks to integrate improved agricultural practices oping countries, and how these are affected by social and through the ‘Euro-Retailer Produce Working Group- ecological processes associated with natural resources Good Agricultural Practices’ (EUREP-GAP) with Social access, governance and management52–54. Although poli- Accountability International’s (SAI) 8000 social condition tical ecology argues for the need to examine social and guidelines. EUREP-GAP certifies farms for ‘good agricul- ecological processes across multiple geographic scales tural practices’38, whereas SAI offers a certification to (e.g., local, national and global)55–58, this paper focused ensure adequate working conditions for laborers39. The mainly on the household and community levels (local/ initial certification criteria were developed in collaboration regional). However, our research does address several with a number of large coffee estates in Guatemala36. points of interaction at broader scales, primarily through According to its representative in Guatemala, interviewed our discussion of second- and third-level cooperative in 2004, Utz certified saw a tenfold increase in global sales, organizations in different countries, and their international from 2000 certified tons of coffee in 2002 to 21,000 tons social networks. Our findings also provide insights into the in 2004. local- and regional-level responses of households and cooperatives to globally driven events, such as the inter- Assessing the effects of sustainable coffee national coffee price crisis23. certification Furthermore, our analysis of household livelihood strategies and their relationship to the coffee commodity Several macro-level studies have described sustainable chain connects our research to debates on the governance of coffee certifications7,8,36 and documented premiums where global value chains59,60. An in-depth examination of coffee certified producers received between US$0.05 lb - 1 and household livelihood conditions and strategies, as well as US$0.50 lb - 1 above non-certified growers21. Other scholars their relationship to cooperatives, complements the global have developed empirically rich ethnographic studies on value chain literature on coffee. With a few notable ex- how international certification systems are translated into ceptions (see Daviron and Ponte61), this body of work has the daily lives of small-scale farmer communities and focused primarily on regulations, value-added strategies cultures40–45. Most of this research agrees that higher prices, and rent appropriations62–64. This paper contributes an in- training and more connections to international networks are depth assessment of locally situated social and economic some of the advantages for farmers and cooperatives that impacts resulting from participation in certified or conven- sell to Fair Trade and organic markets37,41,42,46. Some of the tional coffee value chains. Although a deeper discussion disadvantages include high costs of certification; additional of our results, in terms of global value chain analysis, is labor investments and lower yields for organic production; beyond the scope of this paper, we believe that our findings the need for increasingly sophisticated record keeping; will inform future examinations of livelihood outcomes higher quality standards; and the purchase and payment of associated with the producer end of the value chain. certified coffee later in the season6,41,47. Conventional coffee, which refers to all non-certified forms of coffee production and trade, is generally sold faster and with far Research design and methods fewer quality requirements23. Several studies have docu- Field surveys were conducted between November 2004 and mented the economic (e.g., higher prices and financing) and December 2005, providing data for the 2003/2004 coffee social (e.g., links to support networks and social investment) harvest. In each country we worked with researcher teams benefits of Fair Trade to farmer cooperatives9, but only a that were based in-country. Two methodological workshops few have analyzed these issues at the household level in were held previous to field research to develop standardized an international comparative study (but see Jaffee41 and data collection protocols. Countries, team members and Arnould et al.48). cooperatives were chosen based on previous collaborative history among researchers, a team’s established relationship with coffee farmers and cooperatives, and a cooperative’s Research Approach and Methods willingness to participate. Of particular importance to our research was to develop Our research design was a stratified survey, with a better understanding of the current livelihood strategies country and certification type as main strata. We chose
  • 5. 240 ´ V.E. Mendez et al. Table 2. Number of cases and sample sizes for household surveys per certification type and country. Number of Mean area Number household under coffee Mean coffee 1 Country Certification of cases surveys cultivation (ha) yield Guatemala Non-certified 1 cooperative 30 2.1 703 Fair Trade 1 cooperative 30 1.3 960 Fair Trade and organic 2 cooperatives 60 1.4 808 El Salvador Non-certified 1 cooperative 25 1.1 100 Fair Trade 1 cooperative 30 2.3 766 Organic 1 cooperative 30 3.6 418 Fair Trade and organic 1 cooperative 11 3.8 275 Nicaragua Non-certified 1 cooperative 17 1.8 1760 Fair Trade 2 cooperatives 31 2.7 1111 Organic 1 cooperative 39 5.1 696 Fair Trade and organic 1 cooperative 14 3.8 419 Mexico Non-certified 2 cooperatives 55 2.5 1046 Fair Trade and organic 3 cooperatives 97 3.2 501 Totals for the study: 18 cooperatives 469 1 For collectively managed cooperatives we recorded the average area allocated per household. representative cooperatives from a limited pool of organi- key informants (such as personnel from organizations zations that researchers had a relationship with. This working in the community)66–68. Within countries, house- limited the strength of our sampling design, and increased holds were located in different regions, but had similar farm the stratification effect, and limited the number of cases sizes (Table 2). In the case of collective cooperatives in El within each certification type, which can result in a loss of Salvador, we calculated area allocations per household as precision of the statistical analyses65. A similar design was equivalent to tenured land-holdings. Considering that the also used by the only other quantitative analyses of Fair sample consisted of small-scale producers and coopera- Trade coffee certification we are aware of48. We chose to tives, we expected coffee yields and production practices do this because, due to the sensitive nature of some of the to be relatively similar across countries and across cer- survey questions (e.g., income and food security), it would tifications. have been difficult to survey cooperatives that the teams did not know. For organic and Fair Trade certified cooperatives we sought producer organizations with members that had Variable selection, processing and been producing and selling organic and/or Fair Trade coffee statistical analysis for at least 3 years prior to the study. After establishing Variables were selected based on their relevance to house- collaboration agreements with cooperatives, households hold livelihood strategies (e.g., demographics, sources of were randomly selected from lists of cooperative members. income, capacities, networks and migration)51 and those As our main criteria, we attempted to sample a target that could demonstrate tangible benefits from certification population of between 25 and 30 households per certifi- (e.g., gross coffee revenue, education of children, increased cation type per country (Table 2). However, this proved food security and linkages to support networks)9,41,69. difficult in some instances, due to a lack of cooperatives Although we included questions related to the costs of that met the criteria (e.g., at the time, there was only one certification in our survey, we were unable to collect Fair Trade/organic certified cooperative in El Salvador). In consistent information on this variable at the household total, we collected data from 469 households that were part level. Most individual members had limited knowledge or of 18 cooperatives. confused perceptions, and board members were reluctant We defined a ‘household’ as a single or extended family to share specific figures. living in the same residence. Household questionnaires In cooperatives where land is collectively owned were a combination of close-ended and open-ended (all three certified cooperatives in El Salvador, and the questions. Household-level data were collected through an organic cooperative in Nicaragua), we divided coffee identical questionnaire for both certified and non-certified production volumes and land areas under coffee cultivation households, except for the additional questions that only by the number of cooperative members, in order to obtain pertained to certified households (e.g., certification type, volume and land area figures for each household. These premium amount, etc.). We triangulated this information figures were used to calculate gross coffee revenue and with individual semi-structured and informal interviews, yield per hectare figures for households in collective co- focus groups with cooperative board members and other operatives. While we recognize that these calculations may
  • 6. Effects of Fair Trade and organic certifications on small-scale coffee farmer households 241 not be perfectly accurate (for example, some households ranges instead of means and standard deviations. Catego- may spend more time working in the collective coffee rical variables (household savings and credit, food security, plantation and thus earn more income from coffee), we are and migration) were analyzed using Pearson’s chi-square confident that they are comparable to the volume, gross test with PO0.05 considered significant. For all variables, revenue and yield figures for the rest of the households in we compared certifications both for the entire sample and the study. within each of the countries. In order to compare prices, we calculated a weighted average price for each household, because households that sell certified coffee often sell part of their harvest at the Results certified price and part of the harvest at the conventional price. We calculated weighted price as Cooperatives and households in coffee regions of Central America and Mexico (farm gate price for certified organic coffee) * We found three types of cooperatives in our research. First- (% of coffee harvest sold at organic price) level cooperatives were made up of individual members + (farm gate price for certified Fair Trade coffee) * (individuals and/or families), which organized through (% of coffee harvest sold at Fair Trade price) different processes, such as agrarian reforms or voluntary initiatives. Within the first level cooperative category, we + (farm gate price for conventional coffee) * worked with two different types. The first type comprises (% of coffee harvest sold at conventional price) cooperatives, consisting of individual farmers/families, + (farm gate price for certified Fair Trade=organic coffee) * who own their land and form a cooperative to facilitate (% of coffee harvest sold at Fair Trade=organic price) marketing, technical assistance, credit and/or interactions with external actors. These farmers continue to manage This more accurately reflected the prices that farmers their farms individually, but follow cooperative guidelines obtain at the farm gate. Per household gross revenue from (e.g., organic certification rules). The second type com- coffee sales was calculated as the volume sold per house- prises collectively managed plantations, where members do hold multiplied by the price received for that volume. In not have individual ownership of land, but have rights or some coffee cooperatives, such as the Fair Trade and access to land allocations (i.e., residential and agricultural organic cooperatives in El Salvador, the coffee plantation plot assignations), as part of their membership. These is collectively owned. In these cases, gross coffee revenues cooperatives are managed as a collective and run by an were divided equally among member households for the elected board of directors. The second-level cooperatives purpose of this analysis. were formed by the union of first-level cooperatives. These Information was processed into a database created in organizations are also called ‘cooperative unions’ or Foxpro for Windows. Statistical analyses were run using ‘federations’. The third-level cooperatives may include SPSS software, versions 16.0 and 17.0. To analyze the both first- and second-level cooperatives as members, tend differences in the coffee price, volume, gross revenue and to have national representation and are sometimes called education between certifications, we utilized the Kruskal– ‘confederations’. Wallis (K–W) non-parametric test. In addition, for coffee On average, the 469 households we surveyed were made price, volume and gross revenue, we used the Mann– up of six members, and had similar educational levels Whitney U non-parametric test as a post-hoc test for dif- (O5th grade). Men and women were equally represented ferences between each pair of certification types, with a in numbers, and no significant differences were observed in significance level of P < 0.01, due to the large number of educational levels by gender. Subsistence agriculture was pairings. The K–W test was also used to analyze factors an important livelihood strategy for farmer households. In that might contribute to food security, including a com- El Salvador, 42% of the surveyed group produced staple parison of coffee revenue, food production and number of foods (primarily corn and beans), buying less than 40% of income sources between households that did and did not their annual food budget. In the other three countries, only experience food shortages. We chose these tests because 10% of households reported producing staple foods, and the data did not show clear normality or equal variances these families bought an average of 65% of their annual (Levene and Kolmogorov–Smirnov tests), and our house- food budget. hold samples were uneven for the certification stratum. The mean area of owned or allocated land for coffee We were unable to sample for Fair Trade cooperatives cultivation was 3.2 ha per household (N = 469). Total mean in Mexico, or organic in Guatemala and Mexico, and the land areas owned by or allocated to households per country number of households sampled for each category were also were 5.7, 3.1, 2.9 and 1.5 ha for Nicaragua, El Salvador, uneven (see Table 2). The K–W test is a recommended Mexico and Guatemala, respectively. Within countries, the alternative to parametric analysis of variance (ANOVA) farms selected shared comparable geographical conditions. for populations containing uneven sample sizes70. The All farms managed shaded plantations of Coffea arabica, K–W test compares medians instead of means; therefore and were located at elevations greater than 500 m above for these variables we report medians and interquartile sea level. Characterizations of coffee producers in
  • 7. 242 ´ V.E. Mendez et al. Mesoamerica have found similar yields and outputs as a $0.70 per pound of green coffee produced71. However, result of farm size and grower type71. Our sample was made most cost studies have been incomplete, since they fail to up of small-scale farmers and their cooperatives, which include the costs for coffee maintenance, replanting, tools, according to Flores et al.71 cultivate less than 3.5 ha of land harvest interest payments, transport and time invested per farmer and produce an average of 1100 lb ha - 1, when in inspections and training73. Subtracting these estimated coffee is conventionally managed. Average yield for the minimum farm-level production costs from the gross entire sample (736 lb ha - 1) was lower than those presented average price per pound in our sample of $0.78 resulted by Flores et al.71 (Table 2). Organic yields were lower than in an estimated average annual net coffee revenue of conventional yields in Nicaragua and Mexico, but higher in between $0.28 and $0.08 per lb of coffee. By applying this Guatemala and El Salvador. Yields are affected by the net value to the average reported volume sold (1450 lb management capacity and available resources of farmers of coffee per year) by the farmers in our sample, we esti- and cooperatives. Although data comparisons between mated the net coffee revenue per household per year to organic and conventional coffee yields are scarce, in most be in the range between $116 and $406. This range is for cases organic plantations tend to produce lower yields and the entire sample and not accounting for differences in have similar or higher economic costs72. In both El revenues between certifications. However, it represents an Salvador and Guatemala, the organic cooperatives were important figure because it shows how low the annual larger and had well-established organic management revenue range from coffee production is for all of these programs that were more effective than their conventional farmers, including those that sell all their volumes through counterparts. In Nicaragua and Mexico, where cooperative certified channels. management and size were very similar across certifica- Farmers generally do not receive payments for all their tions, organic yields were lower. In these cases, conven- coffee in one lump sum. Instead, some receive advance tional farmers were able to increase yields through effective payment as credit, partial payment upon coffee delivery synthetic fertilizer and pesticide management. and a third final payment. Most receive a single payment We asked the households we surveyed to list the when they sell to intermediaries. Most payments are both members of their household who generated monetary insufficient and poorly timed, leaving a thin (or hungry) income and to list the types of income-generating activities season that generally falls between April and August for undertaken by household members. Half of the members most coffee regions. within each household reported generating monetary Only 15% of all households interviewed reported income. The most frequent income-generating activities having monetary savings, these being most frequent were coffee sales, coffee-related employment, sales of other in Nicaragua, and least frequent in El Salvador. In agricultural crops and non-agricultural employment. Inter- Guatemala and Mexico, 15 and 16% of households viewees were asked to estimate the percentage of their reported having some savings. Forty percent of all income that they earned from coffee sales, coffee-related households reported having access to some form of credit, employment or from other income sources, although not with a marked difference between countries. Approxi- all of them provided complete responses to this query mately 34% of households in the four countries reported at (n = 300). On average, households reported that coffee least one member migrating, either within their countries, sales and coffee-related employment accounted for 67% or internationally. Mexico (in 30.6% of the sample) and of their income. Only 37% reported that they earned all of Nicaragua (28.8%) had the highest emigration rates of the their income from coffee sales and coffee-related employ- sample. ment. We chose to group coffee sales with coffee-related employment for this analysis because some households in the study are members of collectively owned cooperatives, whereby they do not receive income directly from the sale Coffee prices, volumes and gross revenue of coffee but rather are paid by the cooperative for their Gross coffee revenue is determined by three factors: price, work in the collective coffee plantation. Sales of other total volume (green bean yields) and the proportion of agricultural crops contributed 15% of household income volume that is sold through certified channels (and thus on average, while employment in non-agricultural jobs receives the certified price). We first examined how cer- contributed an average of 11%. Non-coffee agricultural tified cooperatives differ from non-certified cooperatives employment and income from other sources (primarily with respect to each of these factors and then look at the support from older children working away from home) resulting differences in gross revenue. comprised an average of 5 and 3% of household income, Annual international conventional (non-certified) coffee respectively. prices averaged $0.72 lb - 1 in 2003/20043. As reported in On average, households sold 1450 lb of coffee for the similar studies, it proved extremely difficult to calculate 2003/2004 harvests. This generated an estimated mean exactly what price households obtain for their coffee23. The gross coffee revenue of US$1064 for the season. Previous different ways in which coffee is sold and the taxes studies have estimated the monetary costs of production and discounts that occur in each country were not fully for smallholders in this region to range from $0.50 to understood by many of the farmers. To compare the prices
  • 8. Effects of Fair Trade and organic certifications on small-scale coffee farmer households 243 1 Table 3. Price, volume and coffee revenue medians (interquartile ranges) for conventional and certified coffee, as reported by all interviewed households in Mexico and Central America (N = 461). Fair Non-certified Fair Trade Organic Trade/organic 4 (n = 124) (n = 98) (n = 68) (n = 175) K–W test 2 Median calculated price 0.51 (0.24)3a 0.68 (0.32)b 0.77 (0.36)c 0.89 (0.32)c c 2 = 186.98, PO0.001** (US$ lb - 1) Median volume 700 (1300)a 1094 (1100)b 3550 (3048)b 600 (900)a c 2 = 51.1, PO0.001** in pounds Median coffee revenue 332.56 (800.06)a 1006.48 (635.80)b 2733.50 (2164.01)c 534.00 (818.16)a c 2 = 55.78, PO0.001** in US$ 1 The K–W test uses medians, and the figures in parentheses are interquartile ranges (analogous to standard deviation for the median). 2 The calculated price is the median price a household received for their coffee in 2003–2004, weighted by the volumes sold at those prices. 3 Medians followed by a different letter are significantly different by the Mann–Whitney U test (PO0.01). 4 * Difference is significant at the PO0.05 level; ** difference is significant at the PO0.001 level. 1 Table 4. Median prices (interquartile ranges) by certification and country (N = 461). Median Median Median Fair non-certified Fair Trade Median organic Trade/organic 2 calculated price calculated price calculated price calculated price 5 -1 Country (US$ lb ) (US$ lb - 1) (US$ lb - 1) (US$ lb - 1) K–W test 3 Guatemala 0.48 (0.95) a, N = 30 0.64 (0.65)b, N = 30 — 0.81 (0.11)c, N = 57 c 2 = 95.81, PO0.0001** 4 4 4 4 El Salvador 0.51 (0.00) a, N = 25 0.92 (0.00) b, N = 30 1.13 (0.00) c, N = 30 1.06 (0.00) d, N = 11 c 2 = 70.52, PO0.001** 4 4 Nicaragua 0.38 (0.39)a, N = 17 0.54 (0.20)a, N = 31 0.77 (0.00) b, N = 38 1.07 (0.00) c, N = 14 c 2 = 70.52, PO0.001** Mexico 0.70 (0.27)a, N = 52 — — 1.11 (0.36)b, N = 93 c = 37.30, PO0.001** 1 The K–W test uses medians, and the figures in parentheses are interquartile ranges (analogous to standard deviation for the median). 2 The calculated price is the median price a household received for their coffee in 2003–2004, weighted by the volumes sold at those prices. 3 Medians followed by a different letter are significantly different by the Mann–Whitney U test (PO0.01). 4 Coffee is produced and sold cooperatively; thus all households in these cooperatives receive the same median price. 5 * Difference is significant at the PO0.05 level; ** difference is significant at the PO0.001 level. presented in Table 3, we used information gathered through in calculated price between certification types in all of the household surveys and data from first- and second-level countries, with households that were members of certified cooperatives. cooperatives receiving higher prices for their coffee Calculated prices (the sum of the amount of coffee sold (Table 4). Only in the Nicaraguan case were conventional at each price, multiplied by the % of total coffee sold at this and Fair Trade prices not significantly different. Because price) were significantly higher for all certified sales in certification types were only represented by members from comparison to conventional markets (K–W, c 2 = 186.98, one cooperative in several of the countries, we cannot state df = 3, PO0.0001), with Fair Trade/organic cooperatives conclusively that certifications were solely responsible for receiving the highest price (Table 3). Price differences these price differences, as other factors unique to these between each pair of certifications individually were also cooperatives may have contributed to the differences in significant except between the organic and Fair Trade/ price. However, because price premiums are generally organic groups (Table 3). based on certifications, it is likely that certifications are Significant price differences (for both conventional and driving these price differences. certified) were also observed between countries (K–W, Volumes of coffee produced and sold were highly vari- c 2 = 60.3, df = 3, PO0.001), so it is possible that the able between households. Fair Trade and organic certified comparison between certifications was confounded by the households produced significantly more coffee than non- uneven representation of cooperative types in the four certified households or households holding both certifi- countries. Thus, we also compared certified and non- cations (Table 3; K–W, c 2 = 51.10, df = 3, PO0.001). It is certified cooperatives within each of the countries, through important to note that these are total volumes, not volumes a Mann–Whitney U test. There were significant differences per area, and they are therefore more reflective of farm
  • 9. 244 ´ V.E. Mendez et al. c 2 = 13.862, PO0.001** areas per household than per hectare productivity. The c 2 = 56.66, PO0.001** organic households and Fair Trade households in this c 2 = 8.68, PO0.034* c 2 = 0.474, PO0.491 study tended to cultivate more land per household than 3 K–W test the other two certification groups, which accounts for the higher coffee volumes of the organic households despite their lower per hectare productivity in Nicaragua and Mexico. Gross revenue from coffee was significantly different between households of the four certification types (K–W, c 2 = 55.78, df = 3, PO0.0001), with all certification groups earning higher median revenues than the uncertified (2170.50)a, N = 14 (795.65)b, N = 57 (471.43)c, N = 11 (899.46), N = 93a group (Table 3). Gross revenues were also significantly different between certification groups when analyzed by Trade/organic Median Fair country, with the exception of Mexico where revenues in revenue (US$) The K–W test uses medians, and the figures in parentheses are interquartile ranges (analogous to standard deviation for the median). the Fair Trade/organic households were similar to those in the non-certified households due to lower coffee production volumes (Table 5). 534.00 1040.92 1076.57 445.65 As discussed by Bacon23, certified farmers are usually not able to sell all of their production through certified markets. Reasons for this include quality standards (only the best cherries), limited market demand (as in the case 2733.50 (228.62)b, N = 38 of Fair Trade) and cooperative quotas (e.g., distribution of 569.49 (0.00)c, N = 30 premiums among the membership). As a result, many Median organic certified coffee farmers are forced to sell a portion of Medians followed by a different letter are significantly different by the Mann–Whitney U test (PO0.01). revenue Table 5. Household coffee revenue medians (interquartile ranges) by country and certification (N = 461). their production in the conventional market. Net revenue (US$) — — generated through certified sales can decrease considerably * Difference is significant at the PO0.05 level; ** difference is significant at the PO0.001 level. when farmers incur the costs of certification, but are not able to sell their entire production at premium certified prices. Various factors influence the percent of production that households in certified cooperatives are able to sell at certified prices. The Salvadoran Fair Trade cooperative 2158.00 (2120.00)ab, N = 31 603.13 (1030.85)b, N = 30 was able to sell all of its production at certified prices 1006.48 (0.00)b, N = 30 because of the small number of Fair Trade certified Trade revenue Median Fair cooperatives in this country that produce high-quality (US$) coffee. In the Guatemalan and Nicaraguan cases, Fair Trade — 1 certified cooperatives were limited by a higher number of Fair Trade cooperatives and higher volumes of production by certified farms. Thus, most of these households sold high proportions of their coffee at conventional prices. Fair Trade/organic certification showed high proportions of volumes sold at certified prices in all cases, with the exception of Mexico (only 54%). In this case, where (2668.26)a, N = 17 (389.25) a, N = 30 (384.38)a, N = 25 (937.89)a, N = 52 farmers were members of large cooperative unions (up to Median non-certified 20,000 members), the amount of coffee sold at certified prices was influenced by coffee quality and the standing revenue 2 (US$) of first-level cooperatives within their union. A power struggle was reported between first-level cooperatives and their unions, in which their lobbying capacity with the 271.84 102.50 752.80 561.09 union is an important factor determining the proportions of their total production that they are able to sell at certified prices. On average, Fair Trade was the certification with the El Salvador lowest proportion of coffee sold at certified prices, with Guatemala Nicaragua Country 60% of total volume sold as Fair Trade. The two certified Mexico organic cooperatives sold almost 100% of their certified coffee at certified prices. Fair Trade/organic certification 1 2 3
  • 10. Effects of Fair Trade and organic certifications on small-scale coffee farmer households 245 % Volume Sold as Certified 100.00 Food security 80.00 Household food security has been used extensively as a Guatemala measure of welfare by NGOs, governments and the UN. 60.00 El Salvador At the 1996 World Food Summit, the Food and Agriculture Nicaragua Organization of the United Nations defined food security 40.00 Mexico as ‘all people, at all times, have physical and economic Average access to sufficient safe and nutritious food to meet their 20.00 dietary needs and food preferences for a healthy and active 0.00 life’74. Food security results from many livelihood factors, Fair Trade Organic (N=68) Org & FT including food production, income to purchase food and (N=91) (N=177) social safety nets75. Certification To explore the issue of food security, we asked families Figure 1. Percentage of total volume of coffee produced by if they experienced times when they felt unable to meet certified households, which was sold through certified channels, their basic food needs. Sixty-three percent of the house- for the 2003/2004 harvest. holds interviewed reported that they did struggle to meet their basic food needs. In our sample, households associ- ated with certifications did not fare any better in terms of food security. Our statistical analyses of the entire sample sold an average of 87% of total coffee produced at certified showed significant associations between food security prices (Figure 1). (using household’s reports of difficulties in meeting basic food needs as a proxy) and certification, but with a higher Household savings and credit percentage of households in all certified groups reporting difficulties meeting food needs (Pearson, c 2 = 22.06, df = 3, Households in our survey population were asked whether PO0.001) than the non-certified group. When each country or not they had any monetary savings. While it is generally uncommon for small-scale coffee-producing households to was examined separately, only in Guatemala was there a have savings, the percentage of certified households with significant association between certification and food savings (17%) was significantly higher than the figure for security (Pearson, c 2 = 21.78, df = 2, PO0.001), again non-certified households (10%) when all certified house- with more certified households reporting difficulties meet- holds were combined into a single category (Pearson, ing their food needs. c 2 = 4.113, df = 1, PO0.043). This difference, however, We also asked households to estimate what percentage of their food they produced on farm and what percentage was influenced by the households in the Fair Trade co- they purchased. There was no significant association operative in Nicaragua, where 55% of respondents reported having savings. This is a much higher percentage than any between certification and self-sufficiency in food pro- of the other certified groups and countries. There were no duction (K–W, c 2 = 0.246, df = 1, PO0.620), with all significant differences between certified and non-certified certification groups purchasing the majority of their food. households in any of the other countries. On average, households purchased 61% of their food. Credit access showed a similar pattern as savings; We recognize, however, that food production is only one however, the association between credit access and cer- livelihood factor that may contribute to food security. To tease out some of the reasons why households may or may tification when all certified households were combined into not be able to meet their food needs, we also examined the a single group was not quite statistically significant (Pearson, c 2 = 3.26, df = 1, PO0.073). Overall, 43% of relationships between reported ability to meet food needs all certified households reported having access to credit, and gross coffee revenue and number of income sources. compared to 34% of non-certified households. When There was no significant difference in median gross coffee certification types were considered separately, however, revenue between those households that did and did not there was a significant association between certification report difficulty meeting their food needs (K–W, c 2 = 0.16, type and credit access (Pearson, c 2 = 9.81, df = 3, PO df = 1, PO0.690). Having more sources of income was, however, associated with being able to meet food needs 0.020). Higher percentages of Fair Trade (42%) and Fair (K–W, c 2 = 7.97, df = 1, PO0.005). Households that did Trade/organic (48%) households reported having access to credit than organic (30%) and non-certified households not experience food shortages reported an average of 2.5 (34%). This is not surprising given that Fair Trade contracts income sources, compared with an average of 2.2 income often include pre-financing for producers, whereas organic sources for households that did report food shortages. and conventional coffee buyers do not provide this benefit. This pattern held when each of the countries was examined Education separately, with the exception of Guatemala where nearly all of the non-certified households reported having access We measured differences in educational levels by the to credit. percent of school-age children in a household that were
  • 11. 246 ´ V.E. Mendez et al. reported to be currently in school. Children were defined as (ii) second-level cooperatives; (iii) national organizations of school age if they were over 6 and under 18 years old. or institutions, including NGOs and government insti- We focused on the current education status of children tutions; (iv) international organizations or institutions, because coffee certifications are relatively new, and could including NGOs and donors; (v) religious groups, mostly not be expected to affect the educational outcomes of Evangelical and Catholic church groups; and (vi) local/ adults48. The median for all certification types was approxi- community groups and committees. Households from Fair mately 50% of school-age children in school, with no Trade/organic cooperatives most frequently reported associ- significant difference between certification types (K–W, ation with organizations and networks. These households c 2 = 1.94, df = 3, PO0.58). In none of the four countries cited second-level cooperatives most frequently (50%), did the percentage of school-age children per family followed by national (46%) and international organizations attending school differ significantly between certification (44%). Both conventional and Fair Trade households cited types and non-certified households. international organizations most frequently (26 and 28%, respectively), while certified organic cooperatives cited national organizations most frequently (27%). Migration Migration can be viewed as a plausible strategy that Knowledge of certification, accountability rural households undertake to support their livelihoods by and power dynamics generating income outside of the region. However, some authors argue that migration can have negative effects on We found that there was still much confusion among rural communities, as it eventually leads to a depletion of farmers and cooperative members about what certifications human capital, which is necessary to reproduce existing are, and cooperative member’s understanding of what it livelihoods76,77. In the case of Fair Trade/organic coffee, means to ‘be certified’. This has also been documented in some studies and certification advocates have suggested previous studies9, and was consistent with the data provided that certification has led to decreased migration from coffee by all of the certifiers and some of the other actors inter- regions77. Hence, our main research objective related to viewed. In general, farmers understood organic certification migration was to examine if certified cooperatives were much better than Fair Trade. Organic has clear regulations experiencing a lower incidence of migration than uncerti- regarding agricultural practices, which farmers found easy fied farmers. To analyze the effects of certification on to comprehend. Understanding Fair Trade is more challen- emigration, we compared the percentages of households ging, since its standards are based on notions of justice from whom at least one family member had emigrated and empowerment23,80. On the other hand, certifications between certified and non-certified groups. ‘Emigration’ were better understood by board members of first-level was defined as leaving the home community in order to cooperatives, and fully understood by staff and board work. There was some association between certification members of second-level cooperatives. and emigration when certification types were compared individually, with 37% of non-certified households, 31% of Fair Trade households, 48% of organic households and Discussion 27% of Fair Trade/organic households having had a member migrate (Pearson, c 2 = 11.01, df = 3, PO0.12). Effects of certifications on household livelihoods However, when all certification types were combined into Most studies on coffee certifications support our results that one group, there was no significant association between Fair Trade, organic or Fair Trade/organic certified co- certification and migration (Pearson, c 2 = 0.92, df = 3, operatives obtain higher coffee prices. Examples of this PO0.34). Neither was there any clear association when research include work in Nicaragua23,80,81, Guatemala9, the data were examined on a country-by-country basis. It is Mexico9,40,41,43 and El Salvador46. Price differences were unlikely that certifications were contributing to any also observed between countries, which relate to the qual- differences in emigration in our sample. ity of the coffee (as measured by cupping), but also to ‘symbolic quality’ associated with the marketing of a ‘country’ brand or image61. Households generally have Participation in social and support networks very little control over these quality factors. Through social networks, which can range from the local to Certifications had a positive effect on the incidence the international, individuals, households and communities of household savings, especially in the Nicaraguan Fair can expand their access to resources and other opportu- Trade cooperative. Fair Trade and Fair Trade/organic nities78. For example, Fair Trade certified cooperatives in certifications improved credit access, although credit was El Salvador received important donations from organiz- usually in the form of pre-financing for coffee and not in ations associated with Fair Trade during the 2003 earth- the form of loans to households. This is consistent with quakes79. In our sample, households reported being other studies reporting that Fair Trade/organic certification linked with at least the six following types of support improves credit access and financial stability for co- organizations or networks: (i) first-level cooperatives; operative organizations23,37,41, although not necessarily