Changes in the economics of coffee production between 2008 and 2019: a tale of two Central American countries

Increasing costs of coffee production relative to coffee prices has led to concern across the industry of lack of profitability of coffee production especially for smallholders who comprise a large majority of producers. This study compares coffee production costs and income over a decadal interval...

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Autores principales: Leiva, Benjamín, Vargas, Adrián, Casanoves, Fernando
Formato: Artículo
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: CATIE- Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza 2024
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://repositorio.catie.ac.cr/handle/11554/12671
id RepoCATIE12671
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spelling RepoCATIE126712024-07-20T08:18:02Z Changes in the economics of coffee production between 2008 and 2019: a tale of two Central American countries Leiva, Benjamín Vargas, Adrián Casanoves, Fernando Costos de producción||production costs||custo de produção||coût de production Precios de mercado||market prices||preço de mercado||prix de marché Coffea||Coffea||Coffea||Coffea Productividad||productivity||produtividade||productivité Análisis de insumo-producto||input output analysis||análise input output||analyse input output Guatemala||Guatemala||Guatemala||Guatemala Costa Rica||Costa Rica||Costa Rica||Costa Rica Sede Central ODS 9 - Industria, innovación e infraestructura Increasing costs of coffee production relative to coffee prices has led to concern across the industry of lack of profitability of coffee production especially for smallholders who comprise a large majority of producers. This study compares coffee production costs and income over a decadal interval of 2008 versus 2019 for coffee farmers in some of the main coffee growing regions of Costa Rica and Guatemala. Costs and income were collected by farmer recall using a standard questionnaire with trained research surveyors. Net income as assessed by EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) increased by about 30% in Costa Rica, but declined to a third of its 2008 level in Guatemala. Agronomic costs of production per hectare increased by 31% in Costa Rica and 62% in Guatemala, mostly due to increased labor costs (higher daily wage rates), while fertilizer usage increased but unit costs remained stable. Gross income was stable in Guatemala but increased in Costa Rica due to receiving significantly higher prices for their coffee in 2019 compared to 2008, while in Guatemala prices declined. Nevertheless, the response was not uniform between farms in Costa Rica while high and medium productivity groupings of farms had higher EBITDA, low and very low productivity farms experienced a decline similar to Guatemala. The difference in performance of farm groups in Costa Rica was due to a decline in production per hectare of the lower productivity group; while the difference between Guatemala and Costa Rica was firstly due to price differences, and secondarily due to lower productivity of some farm groups. The investment of Costa Rican farmers was undoubtedly supported by the substantially increased price received by farmers (as compared to Guatemala), reflected in the increase in export price of coffee from Costa Rica relative to Guatemala. This shows the importance of farmers receiving higher prices for their produce in enabling them to cover increasing production costs, invest in increasing productivity and maintain profitability. 2024-07-18T13:13:00Z 2024-07-18T13:13:00Z 2024-06-09 Artículo https://repositorio.catie.ac.cr/handle/11554/12671 openAccess en Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2024.1376051 12 páginas application/pdf CATIE- Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza
institution Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza
collection Repositorio CATIE
language Inglés
topic Costos de producción||production costs||custo de produção||coût de production
Precios de mercado||market prices||preço de mercado||prix de marché
Coffea||Coffea||Coffea||Coffea
Productividad||productivity||produtividade||productivité
Análisis de insumo-producto||input output analysis||análise input output||analyse input output
Guatemala||Guatemala||Guatemala||Guatemala
Costa Rica||Costa Rica||Costa Rica||Costa Rica
Sede Central
ODS 9 - Industria, innovación e infraestructura
spellingShingle Costos de producción||production costs||custo de produção||coût de production
Precios de mercado||market prices||preço de mercado||prix de marché
Coffea||Coffea||Coffea||Coffea
Productividad||productivity||produtividade||productivité
Análisis de insumo-producto||input output analysis||análise input output||analyse input output
Guatemala||Guatemala||Guatemala||Guatemala
Costa Rica||Costa Rica||Costa Rica||Costa Rica
Sede Central
ODS 9 - Industria, innovación e infraestructura
Leiva, Benjamín
Vargas, Adrián
Casanoves, Fernando
Changes in the economics of coffee production between 2008 and 2019: a tale of two Central American countries
description Increasing costs of coffee production relative to coffee prices has led to concern across the industry of lack of profitability of coffee production especially for smallholders who comprise a large majority of producers. This study compares coffee production costs and income over a decadal interval of 2008 versus 2019 for coffee farmers in some of the main coffee growing regions of Costa Rica and Guatemala. Costs and income were collected by farmer recall using a standard questionnaire with trained research surveyors. Net income as assessed by EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) increased by about 30% in Costa Rica, but declined to a third of its 2008 level in Guatemala. Agronomic costs of production per hectare increased by 31% in Costa Rica and 62% in Guatemala, mostly due to increased labor costs (higher daily wage rates), while fertilizer usage increased but unit costs remained stable. Gross income was stable in Guatemala but increased in Costa Rica due to receiving significantly higher prices for their coffee in 2019 compared to 2008, while in Guatemala prices declined. Nevertheless, the response was not uniform between farms in Costa Rica while high and medium productivity groupings of farms had higher EBITDA, low and very low productivity farms experienced a decline similar to Guatemala. The difference in performance of farm groups in Costa Rica was due to a decline in production per hectare of the lower productivity group; while the difference between Guatemala and Costa Rica was firstly due to price differences, and secondarily due to lower productivity of some farm groups. The investment of Costa Rican farmers was undoubtedly supported by the substantially increased price received by farmers (as compared to Guatemala), reflected in the increase in export price of coffee from Costa Rica relative to Guatemala. This shows the importance of farmers receiving higher prices for their produce in enabling them to cover increasing production costs, invest in increasing productivity and maintain profitability.
format Artículo
author Leiva, Benjamín
Vargas, Adrián
Casanoves, Fernando
author_facet Leiva, Benjamín
Vargas, Adrián
Casanoves, Fernando
author_sort Leiva, Benjamín
title Changes in the economics of coffee production between 2008 and 2019: a tale of two Central American countries
title_short Changes in the economics of coffee production between 2008 and 2019: a tale of two Central American countries
title_full Changes in the economics of coffee production between 2008 and 2019: a tale of two Central American countries
title_fullStr Changes in the economics of coffee production between 2008 and 2019: a tale of two Central American countries
title_full_unstemmed Changes in the economics of coffee production between 2008 and 2019: a tale of two Central American countries
title_sort changes in the economics of coffee production between 2008 and 2019: a tale of two central american countries
publisher CATIE- Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza
publishDate 2024
url https://repositorio.catie.ac.cr/handle/11554/12671
work_keys_str_mv AT leivabenjamin changesintheeconomicsofcoffeeproductionbetween2008and2019ataleoftwocentralamericancountries
AT vargasadrian changesintheeconomicsofcoffeeproductionbetween2008and2019ataleoftwocentralamericancountries
AT casanovesfernando changesintheeconomicsofcoffeeproductionbetween2008and2019ataleoftwocentralamericancountries
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