The Guatemalaan Economy : The Future Of The Guatemalan Economy

Coffee had lots of demand, but little supply. The country that could grow and export the most coffee had a substantial economic advantage over other countries in terms of commerce.

Coffee is globally traded commodity. It is the second-most traded commodity with oil being the first. Coffee is generally traded in financial instruments known as futures contracts, and this is mainly done through the New York Board of Trade. In recent years, countries producing coffee has been increasing. Established producers like Colombia have faced bigger competition from these countries seeking to enter the market. Because of increasing number in countries it makes it harder for coffee producers to influence prices. Over the last few centuries, coffee has grown into one of the world’s most popular drink. There has been strong growth for coffee as it has become a fashionable drink. Coffee has replaced alcohol as a drink of choice for workers

Guatemala is the key trade partner of the United States, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama are other major trading partners. Between 2008 – 2009 total exports have decreased from $17,848 billion, to $6,768 billion. While imports are estimated to have declined from 13.42 billion dollars in 2008 to 10.91 billion dollars in 2009. Even though Guatemala tries to expand its manufacturing activities to reduce economic dependence on agriculture. The agricultural sector is a major contestant of Guatemala’s import, export

In 1964, Guatemala was being run by a military junta, violence was a part of every day life, the economy was in shambles, and jobs were scare (Cuevas, 2011). It was in this setting that a young man, my future father-in-law, took a chance at a better life for he and his family. Enticed by rumors of prosperity in the United States, Alex and his brother Rene saved their money to journey to Chicago, leaving their families behind in a search for hope that was borne of desperation. Alex left his wife Ruth with 20 Guatemalan Quetzal, the equivalent of $20 dollars, and their three children, Vivien, 5, Ingrid, 3, and Marvin, a newborn baby. What experience lay in store for he and his family? How would they fare in an unknown country, without

Guatemala started to export coffee in the 1800s. This made Guatemala an agricultural country mostly from the 1800s-1950s. In fact, 12% of Guatemala's area in 1950 was used for agricultural purposes. However, the number dropped down to 1.1% by 1979. Agriculture employs 30%-40% of people in Guatemala but are often paid inadequate amounts of money to support a family because they are manual labor. From 1950-1970, the number of farm families that were not making enough money to support themselves went up to 37%. From 1979, 2 % of the population owned 65% of the land; this means that a very small percentage of the population owned the majority of Guatemala's land mass. Guatemala also had a democratic period from 1944-1954. During this democratic period, they made an agrarian reform measure, which means the government narrowed the land for agricultural use. They also had a long civil war from the 1960s-1990s which killed, injured, and left thousands of people as refugees. The government also wanted to promote economics, but the poor were not included in the benefits ("Poverty in Guatemala" Avivara). Guatemala has been developing for years and their development has very much contributed, and improved poverty at the same

From the New York Times the article: “Coffee’s Economics, Rewritten by Farmers”, illustrates how Kenneth Lander, a lawyer in Monroe, moved with his family to a coffee farm in San Rafael de Abangares, Costa Rica. Mr. Lander was looking for a more balanced life between work and his lifestyle. Mr. Lander started growing his own coffee from 12 acres of land that yielded 6,000 pounds of specialty-grade coffee beans a year. But in 2008, his financials started to dwindle, and he quickly struggled to support his family. Farmers in his similar financial situation usually turned to organizations like Fairtrade International who typically bailed them out, but for Mr. Lander, he sought out innovative ideas. He began to roast his own beans and sell them

Guatemala is a particularly large country in South America. The country’s terrain is dominated by mountains with narrow coastal plains, limestone plateaus, and volcanoes and jungles. The current population of Guatemala is 17,033,253 as of November 2017, according to the latest United Nations estimates (Guatemala Population (LIVE), 2017). The capital of the country is Guatemala City. For the past years, the politicians have been extremely corrupt. In 2016, Jimmy Morales had won the Guatemalan election to become the new president. His campaign slogan was “neither corrupt not a thief”. Because the people of Guatemala were beyond ready for a change in leadership, he won by a landslide. At the start of his term, people loved him and he seemed to be a great guy. He was a former comedian and not a politician so the people loved him. Unfortunately,

The country of Guatemala, located in Central America, is a developing country. Guatemala does not have a stable government as they have had a long history of dictatorships and had some representative governments throughout its history. Plus, the economy is very backward and not advanced. Guatemala’s location causes it to have many different types of terrains in the small country. It consists of beautiful highlands, fertile coastal lowlands and a central plateau. In spite of these beautiful lands, within the country, the government and economy are making a struggle to improve.

The documentary Black Gold, is about the world coffee market and an Ethiopian fair trade cooperative. Ethiopia being the birthplace of coffee is the largest producer of coffee in the world, producing some of the highest quality of coffee beans in the world, like Harar, Yuban and Sidamo types of coffee. The significant problems pointed out in this documentary show what is wrong in the global trading system. Mainly, while most of us continue have our lattes and specialty coffees, the amount paid to the Ethiopian coffee farmers is so low that a lot of them have been forced to chop down some of their coffee fields and rely on other crops to help them survive. The Ethiopian people are malnourished; they have no clean water, no healthcare, and no schools for their families. As quoted in the film, “They are living hand to mouth”.

It is a globalised world. Being a part of this progressive society, growth is a key indicator of success. Global Trade is one such benchmark that differentiate nations and economies. Every nation has some policies to promote the strengths of their trade globally. Likewise, Colombia has been known to be the third-largest producer of coffee after Brazil and Vietnam (in terms of volumes produced) from a long-time. Coffee is the world’s most traded commodity and most of it is produced by the small-scale farmers. Hence, globalisation has had a great impact on its production as well as trade. Therefore, Colombia’s strength lies in the production of coffee but also promoting their strengths and honing them globally to their benefit. Coffee is not just a cash crop for the Colombians but it’s a way of life for them. The farmers associated with the credulous society of small scale coffee growers called National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia (NFC) (1) was founded in the year 1927.

In chapter seven, it was stated that the coffee shop company do not completely buy from the small-time farmers. In case regarding towards Rwanda, a developing area where Starbucks supposedly performs fair trade, it was discovered that Starbucks buy their coffee beans from bigger plantations and the middle man, who buys coffee beans from small-time farmers usually scamming them (216). This creation of image of Starbucks being a good corporate business in helping the small time farmers earn more income is contracted by Simon’s findings, and shows that the coffee company is actually taking advantage of the small time farmers, when Starbucks buys from the middle man or the big plantation owners, it pay less for the coffee beans than they do if Starbucks purchases beans from small-time farmers. The greed of Starbucks at the expense of the individual farmers is unethical, yet the coffee shop company markets the contradiction.

Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in Latin America. Coffee was introduced to Nicaragua in the mid 1800’s. Since then it has played a crucial role to both Nicaragua’s economy and its environment. It is currently the nation’s primary sources of foreign exchange. Coffee plantations are the economic backbone for thousands of rural communities. Today coffee also supports the 45,334 families that own and operate small farm. In the late 1990s, coffee annually contributed US$140 million to the national economy and provided the equivalent of 280,000 permanent agricultural jobs. Also, the rural communities who cultivate this golden bean are inadvertently helping in preserving Nicaragua’s precious forests and its threatened biodiversity. However,

Finally, global economic issues have an immense influence on the world of coffee. Throughout history there has been a pattern that coffee producing countries are economically worse off than those that are consuming the coffee. Pendergrast mentions that “in 1950 the average income in consuming countries was three times that of coffee-growing nations. By the late 1960s it was five times great” (270). With that said, many producing coffee countries were facing endemics and malnourished peoples because workers were receiving absurdly low wages thus placing them into poverty and human suffering (271). Specifically, although 90 percent of El Salvador’s exports consisted of coffee in the 1930s, they agonized from “‘low wages, incredible filth…[under] conditions in fact not far removed from slavery’” (168). Global economic issues of these producing countries lead to dictators easily gaining power such as those in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Honduras (170). Not only was politics a matter that resulted from global economic issues, “the high interest rates from financial institutions and price [squeezes]” lead to the economic struggle of farmers like those from Colombia due to

Although Colombia has a diverse, yet relatively simple economy, it’s control by solely the private sector causes instability resulting in income inequality among its people. Elements of Colombia’s economy, such as the trade, jobs, and economic condition show the simplicity in its economic interactions and decisions inside the country and globally.

The film highlights the fact that coffee is the most valued word commodity, second to oil. The beginning of the film shows the process in which coffee is made- from bean harvesting by workers in Ethiopia who make next to nothing, through several intermediated stages, and into the market. Although we spend countless amounts of money on coffee without thinking twice, the price that coffee farmers who produce this commodity are getting paid, is disgustingly low. Some of them have even been forced to walk away from their fields. There is no better place to see this