The battle for coffee is heating up in Mexico

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I’ve just finished a visit to ISMAM, a coffee co-operative in southern Mexico. We go back a long way; Trade Aid’s been buying their coffee for at least 15 years and in 2003, when we didn’t have the volumes to buy straight from co-ops who were used to exporting by the containerload, they were the first organisation to sell us green coffee directly by offering to send us a shipment half the normal size.

I’ve been anxious to get back to Mexico, where co-operatives of small-scale coffee farmers such as ISMAM have been increasingly struggling in recent years to compete with large coffee companies in a price war which may yet drive many of them into bankruptcy. With coffee now in tight supply, these large companies have every buying advantage imaginable; politics and big business are intertwined here and they receive subsidies from the Mexican government which enable them to offer very competitive prices through the coyotes (street traders) who drive from village to village buying coffee. These companies have such strong cash reserves that they can offer full payment on the spot to farmers – a tempting deal that the cash-strapped co-operatives cannot match.

Returning to Mexico this week, I’ve heard the anguish of many of these farmers. They set up their co-operative with the plan of marketing their coffee themselves to earn better prices from caring customers and have enjoyed running their own export business for the past 25 years. They enjoy working together and they dearly wish to avoid selling their coffee to the same companies that showed no regard for their welfare in the past by offering them the lowest prices possible. They know that these same companies still only have interest in their coffee today, and not in them. But the temptations are great right now.

Meeting here with representatives of many of the communities from whom Trade Aid buys its coffee, I discussed the pricing challenges which we will try to help them overcome. We all recognised that our best efforts, and the trust and confidence we have in each other, may not be enough to overcome the difficulties their co-operative is facing. The subsidised coyotes are in a good position to win any price war, and we must all work harder and better if we are to resist this challenge.

The day after that meeting, I travelled to one of the co-op’s more remote communities – a three hour drive above the town of Motozintla, much of it up dirt roads which become treacherous in the rainy season. Standing next to a coffee farm, talking with farmers, it was easy to understand on a more personal level the anguish of the farmers that I’ve been visiting.

The conversation turned to the subject of education, and many of the farmers in the group had a similar story to tell; they have children who would love to receive a tertiary education but who cannot for lack of the money to pay for it. One, Victor, has an oldest son who has finished school and would like to study business administration “but we don’t have the money right now”. A second, Julio, has a daughter who has just started high school and has already expressed a desire to study engineering but who will not because, as he recognises, “we already know that we wouldn’t be able to afford her education”.

A third farmer, Lucas, mentioned that he too has a daughter who has just finished high school and who is not going on to do further study but is helping out on the family farm instead. “I know that she would like to still be studying”, he said, “but I haven’t even asked her what subjects she would like to take. I can’t bring myself to do so because by talking about it with her I’d feel like I was offering her a possible future which in truth I cannot”.

I find it wrenching to think that if their co-operative would fail these farmers, standing on the side of the road sharing with me their frustrations, could soon find themselves back at the mercy of the street traders they’ve worked so hard to avoid. It has been the co-operative that has offered them the hope of a brighter future for their families, including the prospect of better-paid careers that require higher education, up until now.

All over the world, large companies are now dominating agricultural production. Mexico is no exception, and transnationals here are using every weapon at their disposal. They’re even establishing cooperativas fantasmas (‘ghost’ co-operatives) and now sell some of their coffee as ‘fair trade’ to unwitting buyers.

Unless we want to support the demands of profit-driven business, we have to consciously support a more producer-friendly trading chain; one which helps farmers to meet aspirations such as providing higher education opportunities for their children. Trade Aid can offer this, as long as enough of us are willing to pay the price required to support the likes of Victor, Julio and Lucas. In Mexico right now, this is a big ask.