An Economic Exploration of Smallholder Value Chains: Coffee Transactions in Chiapas, Mexico

Fátima Luna and Paul N. Wilson

International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, 2015, vol. 18, issue 3, 22

Abstract: Fair trade and vertical integration represent two popular approaches for enhancing the incomes of organized farmers in a volatile coffee market as compared to the uncertain plight of independent, non-affiliated growers. A mixed method approach, utilizing informal interviews and a household survey in Chiapas, Mexico, analyzed three coffee trading regimes: independent, non-affiliated farmers, and growers in cooperatives pursuing a fair trade or vertical integration strategy. Survey and econometric results indicate that concentration on specialty coffee production with a portfolio of foreign contracts is economically preferable to a vertically integrated cooperative, which in turn produces more favorable coffee prices for smallholders than the non-affiliated conventional, coyote-dominated trading system.

Keywords: Community/Rural/Urban Development; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Food Security and Poverty; International Development; Labor and Human Capital; Land Economics/Use; Marketing; Production Economics; Risk and Uncertainty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:ifaamr:208496

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.208496

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