Imbalances within the Coffee Value Chain and Its Consequences in Producing Countries (1990–2020): The Case of Mexico

Abstract: This article carries out a general analysis and quantification of the evolution of international coffee markets since the late 1980s, when the economic clauses of the International Coffee Agreement (ICA), in force since 1962, were suspended. These clauses assigned export quotas to different producing countries and established fluctuation bands for prices to keep them within a range that made them predictable for producers and consumers. The failure to renew the ICA economic clauses, together with the asymmetries in the value chain, the oligopolistic and oligopsonistic concentration of the market, and the financialization of the sector at the international level, had a negative impact on the income of small producers, who supply most of the world’s coffee output. In this article, the case of Mexico is used to exemplify these impacts on peasant economies.