A Fair Deal for Coffee Farmers: Retirement and Succession Planning
With no pension schemes and younger generations turning their backs on the family business, coffee farmers work well into retirement just to keep the money coming in. But change is afoot
Originally published on The Guardian
The need for a good retirement savings plan would not be the first thing most people would think of as they considered the plight of coffee farmers in remote mountain communities in Colombia, one of the world’s leading producers of high-quality arabica coffee beans.
Surviving as a coffee farmer can hard enough on a short-term, daily basis. Not only does the best coffee grow at over 2,000 metres and is thus often difficult to access, but its production is very labour-intensive. Coffee crops are sensitive to climate change with yields often cut by intense rainfall, temperature change and pests. In addition, prices that the farmers receive from buyers can fluctuate wildly, dependent on world supply dictated by climate change and production levels across the globe.
