Iglesias Y Social

Not Fair Enough: Historic and Institutional Barriers to Fair Trade Coffee in El Salvador
Beth Tellman, Leslie C. Gray and Christopher M. Bacon
Environmental Studies Institute Santa Clara University

Abstract
Why do reladvely few Salvadoran farmers seU to Fair Trade certified markets? Tliis árdele examines die proximate and root causes that limit die pardcipadon of coffee smallholders in FairTrade markets. Drawing upon a historícal analysis of rural coffee society- in El Salvador as weU as Fair Trade value ehains and the empiríeal evidenee from two ease studies, one in El Salvador's Eastern mountains, and the second in the Western coffee growing region, this study iUustrates the pracdcal obstacles to pardcipadon in Fair Trade. It also shows how farmers are developing alternadvemarkedng soludons such as direct trade and selUng organic coffee domesdcaUy. The findings suggest that smaUholders currendy face at least five barríers to accessing Fair Trade, including: cerdficadon costs, economies of scale to cover coffee exports operadons, stringent quaUty reqiiirements and aldtude constraints. However, the root causes of smallholder coffee farmers' limited access to Fair Trade arerooted in decades of state-based poUcies and poUdcs that have undermined rural civil society, discouraged educadon, perpetuated uneven access to land and debt forgiveness, and repressed the development of dynamic cooperadve unions with capacity to export smallholder coffee.
K e y w o r d s : Fair Trade, organic certification, alternative trade. Et Satvador, coffee, agrarian reform

Resumen¿Por qué pocos agrícLiltores salvadoreños venden a mercados de "comercio justo"? Este ardculo examina varías causas que Umitan la pardcipación de pequeños productores de café. Basado en un anaUsis históríca de sociedad y café en el Salvador y de las cadenas de valor con dos esmdios caso, uno en la sierra oríental y otro en la región oeste, ilustran los obstáculos prácdcos de pardcipar en comerciojusto y notan como los productores han desarroUado soluciones alternadvas tales como comercio directo y un mercado domesdco para café orgánico. AlgLinas de las barreras que ellos confrontan incluyen los costos de eerdfieaeión, las eeonomías de eseala para cubrir las operaciones de exportación, las rígurosas exigencias de caUdad y la limitación de derra alta para su culdvo. Sin embargo, causashistórícas como la represión de la sociedad ci\il, las desigualdades en el acceso a la derra, y problemas con la deuda, también han afectado este sector. Una desventaja corríente que los pequeños productores deben negociar es el sistema de poUdcas estatales que han desalentado histórícamente el desarroUo de uniones cooperadvas dinámicas con capacidad para exportar el café producido.
Palabras clave:comerdo justo, certificadón orgánica, comertio attemativo. Et Satvador, cafi, reforma agraria

¡oiinuitof Latin American Ceograptrf, 10 (2), 2(111 © Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers

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Journal of Latin /\merican Geography

Introduction Iti 2001, coffee prices pltimmeted to a 30-year low; damaging milUons of coffee farming households and communities around the world, causing 54percent employment loss among tnany Central American coffee farmers (Varangis et al 2003). The lastitig consequences of this econotnic shock were compounded by the 2008 world food crisis during which basic grains, including the Latin American staple, corn, doubled in price (von Braun 2008). CUmate change may further increase the stress contributing to smaUholder vuUierabiUties, potentiaUy decreasethe viabiUty of coffee farming in certain areas (Läderach et al 2011). Farmers responded to this crisis in coffee growing communities with three overaU strategies that can be categorized as: (1) seeking access to better coffee markets often through sustainabiUty certifications such as Fair Trade, (2) diversifying farms and Uvelihoods, and (3) increasing migration (Bacon, Méndez and Fox 2008)....