Coffee is a growth market. Current estimates indicate that global coffee production (in volume) has increased by more than 60% since the 1990s. Coffee is produced by around 25 million farmers, which are mainly smallholders in developing and least developed countries, and over 70% of the coffee produced is exported, resulting in about 20 billion US dollars annual foreign exchange earnings (ICO, 2020). COVID-19 represented a severe joint supply and demand shock to the global coffee sector, particularly during the first months after the start of the pandemic. As noted by Hernandez et al. (2020), the coffee industry experienced important disruptions downstream the value chain, including the functioning of key export infrastructure and international shipping, which combined with local currency devaluations and volatile coffee prices, which resulted in significant challenges for coffee growers, farm workers, and traders.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound effects on livelihoods and food security across rural populations worldwide. This study offers a long-term assessment of the impacts of the pandemic and the path to recovery among smallholder agricultural households in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. We rely on a unique longitudinal survey of 1,262 households collected over four survey rounds between 2019 and 2022. The results show substantial recoveries in incomes, food security, and dietary diversity in the region by mid-2022 compared to 2020, but at levels still worse than pre pandemic ones. There is also a sustained increase in the intention to emigrate. The households that were initially more affected in terms of food security and nutrition but recovered faster include those located in one (San Marcos) of the three departments and families living above the poverty line, while smallholders affected by the ETA and IOTA tropical storms, non-coffee producers, and indigenous populations have taken longer to recover. In addition, we provide quantitative estimates for a subsample of households interviewed during a fifth survey round at the end of 2022, showing an average decline of about 16 percent in total household income three years after the start of the pandemic, mainly driven by a decrease in agricultural income, combined with a 26 percent increase in expenditures and an important surge in indebtedness. Overall, the study offers valuable lessons regarding the recovery of vulnerable households following a major global crisis and in a context of additional shocks, remarking the importance of continue monitoring the situation of vulnerable households, especially those exposed to recurrent (weather) shocks that also have a more exhausted portfolio of coping mechanisms & express a higher willingness to emigrate.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Guatemalan farmers have endured multiple challenges brough about by national and local restrictions to movement as well as disruptions in agricultural value chains. Similarly, farmers have been exposed to several external shocks such as ETA and IOTA tropical storms that hit the country in late 2020 and the recent conflict in East Europe and price crisis. This study examines the long-term effects of the COVID-19 environment on the food security and nutrition of rural households in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. The analysis is based on information from a panel of 1,262 smallholder households in the departments of Huehuetenango, Quiche, and San Marcos, collected during four survey rounds during November-December 2019 (face-to-face), May-June 2020 (by phone), May-June 2021 (by phone), and May-June 2022 (by phone). The study places special emphasis on evaluating changes in agricultural and non-agricultural income sources —including remittances—, and changes in dietary diversity —including consumption of animal-sourced foods (ASF) and fruits and vegetables (F&V)— at the household level, as well as among women between 15 and 49 years and children between 6 and 23 months. The results show some improvements in 2022 in income, food security and household dietary patterns in relation to previous years, but the levels are still lower than those reported before the pandemic (in 2019). The study also explores the effect of recent changes in the availability and prices of agricultural inputs faced by the smallholders as a result of the war between Ukraine and Russia, among other factors.

Amid concerns about the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Guatemala, in January 2020 decreed travel bans from China, which were later expanded to other countries. The country had the first confirmed COVID-19 case on March 13 and the first death on March 15. Some days before that, on March 5, the government had declared a “state of calamity” (Declaración del Estado de Calamidad Pública - Decreto Gubernativo Número 5-2020), which allowed the government to limit some activities,1 and to take different actions2 to protect the health and safety of all persons in Guatemala. This document updates a previous report (Díaz Bonilla, Laborde and Piñeiro, 2021) on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food systems in Guatemala. First, it brings up to date the evolution of the pandemic, using different indicators. Second, it summarizes the main policy responses, costs, and financing. Third, it updates the evolution of key economic and nutritional variables up to the time of this writing (June, 2021). Fourth, there is a more detailed analysis of the evolution of some food value chains that are central for food consumption in Guatemala. Fifth, main results for 2021 and 2022 of previous modeling work are briefly presented. A final section discusses policy considerations in light of the updated analysis.

Over the past three months, coffee prices have experienced multiple spikes and high volatility. This is in contrast to world market prices of major staple foods, which have remained relatively stable. While experts initially attributed the instability of coffee prices to supply-side uncertainty and market tightening, the covid-19 pandemic seems to have aggravated coffee’s price fluctuations. The novel coronavirus represents an unprecedented joint supply and demand shock to the global coffee sector, constituting an enormous challenge to coffee growers, farm workers, and downstream value chain actors. These various supply and demand impacts will be felt at different points in time further contributing to global market uncertainties and the ongoing price volatility. The pandemic may also have major implications for poverty and food insecurity for the world’s 25 million coffee producers, most of whom are smallholders in low- and middle income countries that are unprepared to respond to a public health crisis of this proportion.

We are told that simply by sipping our morning cup of organic, fair-trade coffee we are encouraging environmentally friendly agricultural methods, community development, fair prices, and shortened commodity chains. But what is the reality for producers, intermediaries, and consumers? This ethnographic analysis of fair-trade coffee analyzes the collective action and combined efforts of fair-trade network participants to construct a new economic reality. Focusing on La Voz Que Clama en el Desierto-a cooperative in San Juan la Laguna, Guatemala-and its relationships with coffee roasters, importers, and certifiers in the United States, Coffee and Community argues that while fair trade does benefit small coffee-farming communities, it is more flawed than advocates and scholars have acknowledged. However, through detailed ethnographic fieldwork with the farmers and by following the product, fair trade can be understood and modified to be more equitable. This book will be of interest to students and academics in anthropology, ethnology, Latin American studies, and labor studies, as well as economists, social scientists, policy makers, fair-trade advocates, and anyone interested in globalization and the realities of fair trade.