Table Of ContentFAIR TRADE
AND A GLOBAL
COMMODITY
Coffee in Costa Rica
PETER LUETCHFORD
P
Pluto Press
LONDON (cid:127) ANN ARBOR, MI
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First published 2008
by PLUTO PRESS
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
and 839 Greene Street,
Ann Arbor, MI 48106
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Peter Luetchford 2008
The right of Peter Luetchford to be identified as the author
of this work has been asserted by him in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from
the British Library
Hardback
ISBN-13 978 0 7453 2699 3
ISBN-10 0 7453 2699 4
Paperback
ISBN-13 978 0 7453 2698 6
ISBN-10 0 7453 2698 6
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ix
Acronyms and Proper Names x
Glossary of Spanish Terms xi
Introduction: Approaching Fair Trade: Coffee in Costa Rica 1
1 Creating Cooperatives: the Welfare State, Coffee,
and Fair Trade in Costa Rica 12
2 Sowing Progress and Contesting Development in the
Tilarán Highlands 32
3 Farming for the Global Economy: ‘Playing’ and
‘Juggling’ in the Market 51
4 Landowners and Labourers: Uncertainties, Strategies
and Tensions in the Labour Process 69
5 Working Nature, Working the Market: Sustainability
and Organic agriculture 87
6 Envisioning Autarky: the Family and the Farm 106
7 Civil Society: Local Development and the Limits of
Government 124
8 Creating and Contesting Value: the Earth, Labour
and Exchange 137
9 Conclusion: Fair Trade and Moral Economies 152
Tables 187
Notes 192
Bibliography 206
Index 219
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To Helen, Alex, and Nathan, who came with me,
and Eva and Isabel who arrived later.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
During the writing of this book I have accumulated debts too many
to mention, some intellectual and some personal. First and foremost
it would not have been possible to write without the people of El
Dos, Costa Rica. Their generosity in adopting my family into their
lives was a humbling experience that we will never forget. I am
similarly indebted to all the cooperative staff and managers in the
Coocafé group. In particular, Juan Carlos Alvarez Ulate opened many
doors and is an inspiration in his work. The spirit of openness and
transparency of the Costa Rican people we came to know has led me
to use real names, only obscuring identities when I feel discretion is
necessary. Many who touched our lives deeply appear between the
pages, and this book is my small testament to them.
Intellectually, my greatest debt is to my supervisors and mentors
at the University of Sussex. Richard Wilson believed in me and
supported my project from the start. Jeff Pratt has guided me through
diffi cult times with sensitivity and compassion. His support has
been unwavering, and his wisdom during our shared intellectual
journey is an inspiration – he has become a true friend. Over the
years numerous other people have contributed to the genesis of
the book. I especially wish to thank James Carrier, James Fairhead,
Jon Mitchell, Sutti Ortiz, Geert de Neve, David Lewis, David Mosse,
Jock Stirrat and Pete Stewart for the encouragement, guidance and
help they have given me in various guises and at different times.
Comments on and gentle criticism of some of the material has
been made at seminars, conferences and workshops at Sussex,
the LSE, Goldsmiths and Oxford Brookes. Fieldwork was made
possible by a generous grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for
Anthropological Research, and the British Academy and the Nuffi eld
Foundation generously offered funding for a return visit.
Finally, my family have helped and supported me in different
ways and at different times. Mark Luetchford deserves special
mention for planting the seed in the fi rst place, and for remaining
a great friend and brother. His energy, enthusiasm, optimism
and commitment is awe-inspiring and infectious. Helen had the
courage to pursue the Costa Rican adventure, and without her this
book would never have seen the light of day. She, along with my
children, has taught me more about life and love than words can
tell. This book is dedicated to them.
ix
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ACRONYMS AND PROPER NAMES
Asociación de Desarollo
Integral: Integrated Development Association
Asociación Latinoamericana
de Pequeños Cafi cultores: Latin American Small Coffee Farmers
Association
ATO: Alternative Trade Organisation
BNCR: National Bank of Costa Rica
BANCOOP: Cooperative Bank
CAE: Agro-economic Consultancy
CCMC Central American Consortium for
Cooperative Marketing
Coocafé: Coffee Cooperative Consortium of
Guanacaste and Montes de Oro
Coopeldos: Coffee and Multiple Services
Cooperative of El Dos de Tilarán
Fedecoop: Federation of Coffee Cooperatives
FODESAF: Family Development Fund
Icafé: Institute of Coffee
IMAS: Institute of Social Security
Infocoop: Institute for the Promotion of
Cooperatives
MAG: Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock
PLN: National Liberation Party
R.L.: Responsibilidad Limitada (Limited
Responsibility)
VIVIENDA: National Government Sponsored
Housing Programme
x
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GLOSSARY OF SPANISH TERMS
a medias: a sharecropping system whereby half the
product from the land goes to the landowner
and half to the landless labourer
adelanto: the fi rst payment, or ‘advance’ made by the
processor on delivery of coffee
aguas mieles: the contaminated water that remains after
wet-processing of coffee
argullo: cartel or ‘trust’
asociado: cooperative member
ayote: a root vegetable
benefi cio: coffee-processing plant
brete: shackles or fetters
broza: the fruit pulp that remains after removal of
the coffee bean
en cereza: coffee still in the fruit or cherry
café oro: processed coffee before it is toasted
cafetal: coffee grove
cafetalero: coffee farmer
cajuela: box used to measure picked coffee in the fi eld
= 20 litres
campesino: rural person who makes a living from
agriculture
caña: sugarcane
canasta: basket (into which coffee is picked)
chamol: a root vegetable
colones: Costa Rican unit of currency ($1 was worth
about 520 colones in 2007)
criba: a revolving cage used to separate different
qualities of coffee during processing
despulpador: processing machine that removes the fruit
from the coffee bean
en fi rme: illegal practice of buying coffee outright upon
delivery
evangelico: Protestant evangelist
fanega: standard measure for coffee at the processing
stage = 400 litres
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xii Glossary of Spanish Terms
fi nca: (small) farm
frijoles: red beans, a staple
fuerza: force or strength
gancho: hook used to hold down branches while
picking coffee
jornalero: day labourer
jugar(se): play (juggle); used with reference to economic
endeavour
junta assembly or council
liquidación fi nal: fi nal payment and gate price of coffee
lotería: lottery; used with reference to the market
lucha: struggle
manzana: most common measurement for land area =
7,000 square metres
mercado alternativo: alternative market; the usual name for fair
trade at the production end of the market
monte: wilderness, wilds, uncultivated land
nica: Nicaraguan
parcela: plot of land
patrón: employer
peón: labourer employed on a regular basis by a
patrón
pilón: A shallow basin designed for hand-washing
clothes
por el gasto: food grown for home consumption
pulpería: general grocer
reajuste: instalment in payment for coffee
recibidor: collection point for coffee
rendimiento: weight in kilos of green coffee extracted from
one fanega of unprocessed coffee
si Dios quiere: God willing
tantear (los precios): act of moving between buyers in order to get
an optimum price
tico: Costa Rican
tiquisque: a root vegetable
tope: festival involving tests of horse-riding skill
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INTRODUCTION
APPROACHING FAIR TRADE:
COFFEE IN COSTA RICA
‘From the culture of small producers’ proclaims the message on the
tin of fair-trade coffee on my desk. Underneath the words a group
of women and men in colourful dress stand in a sea of hessian sacks
we presume contain coffee. The scene is obviously Latin American,
though there is a mix of races, cultures and styles. The men wear
Western shirts and long trousers; one sports a cowboy hat, another
a baseball cap. The women are more traditionally dressed, and their
clothes and their faces suggest a blend of the indigenous and the
European: a mestizo culture. The picture illustrates the words, evoking
an unknown world of coffee production; we cannot tell exactly
where the people come from but we assume they are small farmers.
They smile and look content, secure and comfortable. The photo
alongside the logo contrasts with mainstream generic brands and
is meant to reassure.
The stark, white background makes the message stand out, but
the fi gures fl oat free of context and much is left to the imagination.
Ultimately, the picture and the words are a sign, a symbol, a promise,
which is what allows the packaging to succeed. But we are left with
a nagging doubt, a desire to know more about the people who grow
our coffee and the conditions under which it is produced, and we are
concerned that the deals that bring such an intoxicating, fl avoursome
stimulant into our daily lives might be exploitative. This wish to
connect to and ‘know’ the producers in a world and a market that
sets them apart inspires increasing numbers of people to buy ethically
branded goods. But can the products be trusted, and do we really
‘know’? The purpose of this book is to help meet that desire for
knowledge by providing some of the missing context to the highly
emotive subject of fair-trade coffee.
When I began to work on Latin America, coffee economies and fair
trade some ten years ago, the idea of ethical commercial exchanges,
in which consumers are invited to pay a premium to guarantee
prices to producers, was in its infancy. The fair-trade concept had
emerged after the Second World War and had maintained a niche
1
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