The Journey of the Chiapas Living Income Report
At the Anker Research Institute, we are proud to announce the publication of a living income report (with a living wage in the annex) for rural areas and small towns of Chiapas, Mexico, with a focus on coffee-growing areas. This study was a very long gestation project, which required three years of planning, extensive stakeholder engagement, fieldwork in some of the most important coffee-producing areas of the country, and finally, the estimation of living income and the preparation for publication of this report. At ARI, we never felt discouraged, and we are glad that our allies in this project also remained steadfast in their purpose.
Source: ARI
A focus group discussion with coffee growers in Pluma Hidalgo, Oaxaca, April 2023
The study is part of the International Coffee Organization (ICO) initiative called Living-Prosperous Income Technical Workstream, which contemplates, among other actions, carrying out a living income benchmark study in Mexico. The Government of Mexico, which is a member of the ICO, then requested that the decision on the study location be made only after carrying out a pre-study on the living conditions and living costs in the main coffee production areas of the five states in the country with the highest coffee production. Therefore, this study had two stages. The first stage consisted of exploratory field visits (scoping visits) to coffee-growing regions in five different Mexican coffee-growing states between March and May 2023. The second stage consisted of a field study in November 2023 to collect food prices, housing costs and other living costs in the Jaltenango de la Paz region of Chiapas, the location chosen for this study.
“It was clear from the beginning that doing the pre-study and arriving at a decision on the study location would involve taking into account the large size and complexity of the coffee sector and, thus, a lot of additional effort, time, and thinking by ARI's research team.”
It was clear from the beginning that doing the pre-study and arriving at a decision on the study location would involve taking into account the large size and complexity of the coffee sector and, thus, a lot of additional effort, time, and thinking by ARI's research team. The coffee sector in Mexico has hundreds of thousands of producers scattered throughout much of the center and south of the country, as well as hundreds of producer organizations, coffee marketing companies, buyers and distributors, and dozens of NGOs providing support and guidance to the sector. Additionally, various public sector entities play a crucial role in the development of coffee production. We thank Stephanie Daniels and Christina Archer (Sustainable Food Lab), Vera Espíndola Rafael and Santiago José Arguello Campos, (Secretaría de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural -SADER, Gobierno de México) for supporting us along the process, and for coordinating the expectations and active participation of the representatives of all these groups in the different stages of the study.
Therefore, a group of Mexican researchers led by one of the authors of the present study visited the municipalities of Xicotepec (Puebla), Atoyac de Alvarez (Guerrero), Huatusco and Ixhuatlán del Café (Veracruz), Pluma Hidalgo (Oaxaca), and Angel Gabino Corzo/Jaltenango de la Paz (Chiapas). The research team, with the logistic support of Amecafé (Asociación Mexicana de la Cadena Productiva del Café), coordinated focus group discussions with coffee growers in these municipalities to inquire about diet, housing, access to health care, education, and transport of a reference household and, in general, how households typically solve their needs in the coffee-growing region. In addition, the research team analyzed census and survey data for these municipalities and states to estimate key Anker Methodology® parameters, which are used in the estimation of the living income, such as share of the rural population, size of reference household, calorie requirements in the diet per person per day, and NFNH/Food ratios.
The qualitative and quantitative analysis showed that no major differences are expected in the cost of a basic but decent standard of living between the five coffee-growing areas visited. Accepting the above, the researchers and the Anker Research Institute suggested that the estimation of the living income be carried out in the coffee-growing area of Jaltenango de la Paz, municipality of Angel Albino Corzo, in Chiapas; this proposal was presented and accepted at a stakeholder meeting, where most of the sector's representatives were present.
Source: ARI
States and locations visited by ARI research team in Mexico for this study from March to May 2023
“Chiapas concentrates about 40% of Mexico's coffee production; living income was expected to be similar in Chiapas and the other coffee-producing areas; poverty and social deprivation are greater in Chiapas, so a study on living income would have a greater social return in this state”
This proposal was based on the following considerations: Chiapas concentrates about 40% of Mexico's coffee production; living income was expected to be similar in Chiapas and the other coffee-producing areas; poverty and social deprivation are greater in Chiapas, so a study on living income would have a greater social return in this state; from the perspective of national and international value chains (integration objectives, economic development, and compliance with due diligence), the risk of non-implementation of the living income was greater in Chiapas.
The results of the study were made public at a webinar organized by SADER in early September 2024. In front of about 80 national and international stakeholders, ARI's research team presented the main sections of the study, the living income estimated for November 2023 and the living income updated by inflation to June 2024. The Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA) also presented their estimates on the prevailing income from coffee among the farmers. The event's culmination was the presentation by SADER of the gap between the living income and the prevailing income of coffee growers, as well as the policies that the Mexican federal government is considering putting into practice to close this gap in the coming years. These policies include everything from monetary support to technical assistance and other measures to increase the productivity of coffee producers.
Therefore, at ARI, we conclude this project with the satisfaction of having placed in the hands of all the stakeholders in the coffee sector of Mexico a credible, widely accepted, and comparable estimate of the living income for smallholder coffee producers. This estimate, as we are already seeing, will contribute to generating the context and policies for the prosperity and sustainability of this sector.
Mexico City, September 22nd 2024
For more information about our research on migration, contact ARI’s Senior researcher and Deputy Director,: Marcelo Delajara mdelajara@ankerinstitute.org
For general inquiries about the Anker Research Institute’s work, contact: inquiries@ankerinstitute.org
Views expressed are the authors. The opinions expressed here belong solely to the author and may or may not reflect the views of Anker Research Institute.
Referenced studies
