Devouring profit - International Coffee Organization

contribution by family member type to the total farm needs; these needs are about
220 labour days per farm per year, including coffee harvest.
On average a typical coffee farm needs to contract just 10% of the total labour needs
in order to carry out all of the activities needed for crop management. If a typical
family in the coffee sector were composed of about 10 members, according to the
participation of different age groups, this family would have about 3.4 adults, 4.3
children, 2 young persons and 0.3 elderly people. If we assume that there are 20 days
of work per month per person, family labour can supply the labour needs to carry out
the farm activities for 7 to 8 months per year. However in the harvesting period there
is a labour deficit. This point should be taken into account when analysing CBB 28
management and suggesting additional labour inputs.
Farmer’s income: coffee farmers’ income is seasonal in Mexico, which is a risky
situation especially if pickers become scarcer through emigration, as some farmers’
fear. In order to minimise the effect of these seasonal variations, farmers can attempt
to spread flows of labour and harvest production throughout the year. Upton (1996)
points out that there are various strategies, such as diversification of agricultural production,
to establish different on- and off- farm activities, storing food, seeds and
animal fodder, etc. From experience in other countries, this situation also suggests that
they would be especially risk-averse and perhaps unwilling to try new crops or varieties.
Seasonal income means that money is scarce for labour at certain times, or that
certain activities such as crop hygiene might be delayed because of other more urgent
tasks. For instance we can take three of the production categories proposed by Moguel
& Toledo (1996), subsistence, medium technology and intensive technology. These
categories produce 5, 13 and 24 Quintals of green coffee/ha/year. If we assume an
expected price in 2000 of about $650 Mexican pesos per quintal of parchment coffee 29 ,
we can estimate the monthly income following the harvest distribution, as appears in
Figure 20.
Figure 20. Gross income distribution according to coffee productivity
(S. Mexico) 30 .
28 CBB = Coffee Berry Borer (Hypothenemus hampei)
29 Expected price this year. Roberto Esquinea, Union Ejidos Lazaro Cardenas.
Cacaohatan, September, 2000
30 Mexican Coffee Council, 2000
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