Coffee: A Global History by Jonathan Morris

Author:Jonathan Morris [Morris, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Cooking, General, Beverages, Coffee & Tea
ISBN: 9781789140262
Google: qpGCDwAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Published: 2018-10-14T13:00:00+00:00

Colombia, 1970s–80s. Hand-picking on the mountain slopes. As this image shows, mechanization is not an option for Colombian coffee growers.

Its wide-ranging powers enabled the FNCC to effectively manipulate the price premium between Colombian and Brazilian coffee. During the 1930s it deliberately lowered the differential to obtain greater market share in the United States. By 1937 Colombia had captured 25 per cent of the U.S. market.

Inter-American Coffee Agreement

The collapse of the coffee price during the Depression forced the leading Latin American producers to start negotiating with each other to find solutions to the crisis. In 1936 they established the Pan-American Coffee Bureau to promote consumption in the United States, while the Brazilian ibc and Colombian FNCC entered into a price maintenance agreement, which quickly fell apart, with Brazil accusing Colombia of ‘free-riding’ on Brazilian efforts to regulate the coffee supply by withholding stocks from the market. In 1938 Brazil flooded the market with coffee in frustration, driving prices back down, but following the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939, it became imperative for producers to find a way to avert any further price collapse.

On 28 November 1940, the Inter-American Coffee Agreement was signed by all fourteen coffee-producing states in the western hemisphere along with the United States, which recognized the value of ensuring the stability of supply. The agreement stated, ‘It is necessary and desirable to take steps to promote the orderly marketing of coffee, with a view to assuring terms of trade equitable for both producers and consumers by adjusting supply to demand.’16

The national agencies representing the coffee producers negotiated quotas for their exports to the United States, with the system entering into force in April 1941. By the end of the year prices had doubled, and they remained strong thereafter.

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