Daniele Giovannucci

Dealing With the Coffee Crisis in Central America: Impacts and Strategies

Current coffee prices are at record lows and below the cost of production for many producers in Central America. Moreover, the coffee crisis is structural, and changes in supply and demand do not indicate a quick recovery of prices. So, coffee producers in Central America are facing new challenges-as are coffee laborers, coffee exporters, and others linked to the coffee sector. Coffee plays a major economic role in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The coffee crisis is actually part of a broader rural crisis caused by weather shocks (such as Hurricane Mitch and droughts), low international agricultural commodity prices, and the global recession. These challenges call for new strategies for Central American countries aimed at broad-based sustainable development of their rural economies. The authors deal with the impact of the coffee crisis and strategies to deal with it. They include an analysis of the international coffee situation and country-specific analyses. The authors explore options and constraints for increased competitiveness and diversification, and discuss social, environmental, and institutional dimensions of the crisis. The authors conclude that there are specific solutions that can be pursued for the coffee sector. Some are already being applied, but more can be done in a more systematic way. Also, there is a need for safety nets to deal with the short-term impact of the crisis. Longer-term solutions are to be found in increased competitiveness and diversification in the context of broad-based sustainable rural economic development.

Warehouse Receipts: Facilitating Credit and Commodity Markets

The lack of access to credit is a severe constraint for many farmers. Warehouse receipts are an important and effective tool for creating liquidity and easing access to credit. Such schemes also offer additional benefits such as smoothing the supply and prices in the market, improving grower incomes, and reducing food losses. The paper describes the steps of interaction involved in a warehouse receipt system, sets out the essential questions to be asked regarding the critical conditions for its success and illustrates the roles of the key actors in setting up and running such a system.

Socialist Republic of Vietnam Coffee Sector Report

Vietnams meteoric rise to become one of the worlds largest coffee producers in world-record time has been matched by equally fast changes in policies and market structure. It has moved from a planned economy to a much more open market orientation and become one of Asias fastest-growing economies. While many benefits can be attributed to the coffee sectors growth, there are also questions about how equitable the socioeconomic impact has been and about the overall sustainability of the sector. This paper offers a thorough look at the functions and trends of the sector within the enlightening context of its history and fundamental structure. It also includes many new calculations and data tables for production, export, acreage planted, value, and more.

Ethical Commodities: Issues in Their Production, Credibility, and Trade

The production and trade of commodities designated as ethical or sustainable has grown exponentially in recent years. Historically, it has been the purview of governmental policies and international agreements to foster and support products and services that increase sustainability. In recent years, however, parts of that role have been substantially undertaken by markets and civil society in the form of corporate social responsibility initiatives and voluntary standards or ecolabels. These efforts have grown rapidly in commodities such as palm oil, sugar, cotton, cocoa, and coffee over the past two decades. However, the future of these voluntary standards is unclear since, on the one hand, they depend largely on consumer trust but, on the other hand, are based on limited evidence and on systems of compliance that can be fragile.