Coffee Value Chains

The global coffee market is based on the quantity and quality of available coffee beans. Europe, Japan and the USA are the largest buyers, while the main countries of origin include Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia and Mexico. Coffee from the Mexican south plays a particularly important role in global coffee production. The (inter)national companies that dominate the Mexican coffee sector include Nestlé, Agroindustrias Unidas de México (AMSA), Jacobs and Expogranos y Becofisa-Volcafe (Henderson 2017). Although sales to Germany have declined in recent years due to increased infestations of coffee beetles and rust (Lyon et al. 2016), German roasting companies (Röstrausch), collectives (Aroma Zapatista) and cafés (e.g. The Coffee Shop) continue to source their coffee directly from Mexican fincas, particularly in southern Mexico.

As an alternative to conventional or collectively organized coffee cultivation, Zapatista communities offer their coffee on the world market. In reaction to the NAFTA free trade agreement in 1994, indigenous resistance groups were formed, known under the acronym EZLN (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional), which organize themselves on a grassroots democratic basis (cf. e.g. B.A.S.T.A group 2003). In line with their understanding of autonomy - "the ability to operate a local government that respects the social and political traditions of the Indígenas in Chiapas within the fabric of Mexico's legal, social, andeconomic structures" (Hollinger 2012, p. 215) - they also organize the cultivation and marketing of coffee in cooperatives. Often without financial support from government agencies or international aid organizations, Zapatista cooperatives have established their own position in global trade. Through direct contacts with collectives in Germany, Spain, Italy and Switzerland, for example, sales are organized without middlemen (Gerber 2005). Working conditions and social effects of communitarian economies have thus also come into focus, making them particularly interesting for social science research. As a result, the teaching research project focused on

1. the production conditions for coffee, particularly in the Zapatista cooperatives compared to traditional coffee fincas
2. whether and to what extent social upgrading can be observed in agriculture (decent-work?)

Project management and organization: Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Tuider and Dr. Olaf Tietje

Duration: 05-06/2019