There Is No Money in High-end Coffee For Guatemalan Growers
- Climate change has driven up costs for growers, group says
- Market prices are insufficient to make ‘minimum living wage’
Small coffee farmers now represent 97% of Guatemala’s producers and large ones are disappearing, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.
Photographer: Victor J. Blue/BloombergCentral America’s second-largest coffee exporter can’t afford to boost production of beans preferred by big coffee chains because rising costs are discouraging investment by Guatemalan farmers.
Guatemala is the world’s sixth-largest supplier of arabica beans, the variety favored by Starbucks Corp. The U.S. coffee giant even calls the country’s beans “the touchstone of quality” on its website. Such advantages aren’t enough for Guatemala’s 125,000 coffee-growing families who are facing higher costs from climate change and the pandemic, said Juan Luis Barrios, a producer who’s also the new president of the Guatemalan National Coffee Association.