Summer Archives

Will McCollum Antigua, Guatemala - Specialty coffee market research

This summer my friend and partner, Mac Muir, and I spent seven weeks in the Guatemalan Highlands, studying many the complexities forged in the relationships between different actors in the specialty coffee industry. Initially our approach was broad in scope, but as we interviewed and talked with more people, our interests became narrower. We worked under the direction of Dr. Ted Fischer and Dr. Bart Victor of Vanderbilt University, and as with their own work, our research prioritized the study of small producer market access. We went into the summer with plans of using Dr. Fischer and Dr. Victor’s survey with Anacafe as a springboard for our own studies. We had the plan of joining the survey team for at least a week. Although we didn’t have the chance to join the survey team, we interviewed close to fifty participants from each of the divisions of the value chain—small producers, medium producers, large producers, intermediaries, exporters, and roasters. We came away from our study with several conclusions about the market and the inequities therein. I will spend some time fleshing these ideas out below. We also met several people in the coffee industry who will be invaluable to us should we decide to form a longer market-based initiative in Guatemala.