Rooted in Coffee: Deregulation, Economic Crisis and Restructuring Power in the Brazilian Coffee Sector: How Small-Scale Coffee Producers Responded to the Coffee Crisis in Sul de Minas.

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Date

2012-01-13

Authors

Coulis, Jonathan, E

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Publisher

University of Guelph

Abstract

After 1989, the elimination of the Brazilian Coffee Institute coincided with a global movement of coffee market deregulation, resulting in a long ‘coffee crisis’ that harmed the livelihoods of thousands of small-scale coffee producers in Brazil. In response, the Brazilian coffee landscape was restructured and large private cooperatives emerged as the primary institutions in the Sul de Minas region. However, after the initial retraction of state intervention, extremely low coffee prices contributed to the reestablishment of the Brazilian government in the coffee sector, but in a different fashion, as state institutions were redesigned to support actors and private institutions, not recreate the state as an intermediary in the market. Despite further commitment to coffee production, producers experienced greater economic vulnerability and suffered the brunt of the low coffee prices, but a strong culture of coffee production played an important role in shaping the choices of producers.

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Keywords

Brazil, Coffee, Coffee Crisis, Small Producers, Deregulation, Market Liberalization

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