Interest for organic products has skyrocketed in American and European markets over the past few decades, but growing organic coffee is an intricate and complex process. As consumers, we often associate organic labels as universally beneficial, but there are numerous factors to be considered when determining its impact.
Throughout the 1990s, widespread international market liberalization policies (think free trade) slashed international coffee prices and increased price volatility. Due to the reduction in price of coffee on the world market, smallholder farmers took a substantial financial hit and were forced to adapt. Many farmers refocused and shifted into the specialty market, where coffee yields were more valuable. Farmers strengthened agricultural practices - generally with the help of local coffee cooperatives or international NGO - to prioritize and increase quality. With good reason, the specialty coffee market now grows annually by five to 10 percent.
The transition from non-organic (conventional) to organic farming is similar to the shift from commodity to specialty coffee. In the early 2000s, organic products boomed and American and European importers began paying a price premium to farmers. During this time, organic coffee sold for $2 per pound unroasted, about $0.50 more per pound than conventionally grown coffee – a 25 percent increase in price!
As thousands of smallholder farmers began switching from conventional growing methods to organic farming, unforeseen issues emerged. An estimate by Food Policy claims that the average organic farm produces 45 percent less than it would via conventional processes, which use non-organic fertilizer to increase crop yield, a significant reduction in the coffee harvest.
Going organic also comes with a drastic increase in farmers’ labor costs. As one example, instead of spraying pesticide to kill weeds and detrimental brush, farmers must hire additional labor to weed and trim manually. The timing is also unfavorable; the bulk of the manual labor occurs during other crops’ harvest season, crops grown to feed farmers’ families and the local community. This additional manual labor takes time away from agricultural production.
Strikingly, a study by Ecological Economics found that over a ten-year period, organic and organic-fair trade farmers have become poorer relative to conventional producers.
It is without question that organic agricultural practices benefit the environments in which they are utilized. A small anecdote from my time spent on an organic coffee farm in remote Karnataka, India shows just this – the 20-acre organic farm fostered incredible biodiversity in both flora and fauna; This one farm supported 26 species of migratory birds, while the surrounding 100 square kilometers of conventional farmland was only able to support three.
Smallholder farmers are justifiably skeptical, as they understandably prioritize feeding their families over the birds. In order for a large scale adoption of organic coffee farming, coffee yield levels, profitability and efficiency must be increased as prices for certified coffee cannot compensate for low productivity, land or labor constraints. Alternatively, American and European coffee importers and roasters must be willing to pay increased premium prices for these delicious organic coffees.
Marshfield native Fletcher Souba is the Chief Coffee Officer and co-founder of SlackTide Coffee Roasters. He studied international relations and economics at the College of William and Mary and applied economics at Johns Hopkins University; he previously worked at the U.S. Agency for International Development at the Bureau for Food Security. His go-to coffee drink fluctuates between an iced latte and a cortado.