May 2013 C&CI • Ecuador • 29
order to promote the association. Efforts to recognize Galapagos coffee as a conservation coffee subject to exacting environmental standards were started in 2008. Such coffees command a premium price. However, the efforts have now been discontinued as international funding was not renewed.
Harvest takes place during September and December using temporary, often migrant workers. Daily wages of US$25 are common. Some workers prefer to get paid by the amount of coffee they harvest, which may increase their wages to up to US$40 per day.
As the GAIN report makes clear, commercialization has been a major challenge to Galapagos producers. Most farmers prefer to sell green coffee, for which they receive lower prices. In 2012, for the first time, Santa Cruz’s growers tried to sell their production through their association. They expected that doing so would increase their profits by at least 25 per cent, because farmers are usually rushed into selling their production at low prices due to the lack of planning and resources to finance the harvest. Many farmers are willing to sell the coffee they produce at any price as long as payment is made in cash, on the spot. San Cristobal producer Expigo has succeeded at exporting its production and has marketed it through the US coffee chain Starbucks. Santa Cruz growers usually sell their production to San Cristobal’s Expigo or other mainland processors.
Origin certified
A recent study looking at ways to improve production on San Cristobal highlights the potential of the ‘origin certified’ concept, which could be a niche market opportunity in the US, Europe and Japan. Small volumes of coffee from the Galapagos have been introduced to these markets and have fetched a premium of up to 450 per cent compared to mainland coffee grown in Ecuador. Galapagos coffee can therefore be considered a ‘specialty coffee.’ While the price per 60kg of mainland Arabica is about US$150, Galapagos coffee is sold at much higher prices. Galapagos farmers report that they receive US$450-600 for a 60kg bag of green coffee, which is 3-4 times the continental price. “Farmers on Santa Cruz Island are especially concerned that some sellers are adulterating their coffee, mixing continental coffee with Galapagos coffee, but marketing it as Galapagos coffee. Although there is only anecdotal evidence that this occurs, the increased
In addition to coffee, the Galapagos Islands are well-known for their very diverse flora and fauna
presence of Galapagos-branded coffee in souvenir shops in Ecuador as well as in the international markets provide reason to believe that adulteration may indeed take place,” said the authors of the GAIN report, noting that field visits suggest that currently harvested areas of coffee are much smaller than is necessary to produce the amount of coffee tallied in recent reports.
The GAIN report concludes that production on the Galapagos has a lot of potential, and could do much to improve the livelihoods of the farmers on the islands, and help reduce pressures from other economic activity, such as tourism, that present more challenges to sustainability.
Yields are low However, from an agronomic perspective,
production techniques are rudimentary and the returns of harvesting existing plantations are instant revenue for farmers who do not recognise the potential benefits if their product were to be managed adequately. As highlighted above, due to the lack of pests and diseases and the fact that there is no need to apply fungicides or other chemicals, production on the islands could be certified as organic. However, the lack of technical and financial resources prevents farmers from investing, improving, and certifying their production techniques. “Currently, intermediaries seem to be the only beneficiaries of the demand side’s appreciation for Galapagos specialty coffee,” said the report.
“Farmers complain that the price they receive is being undermined by illegal mixes of Galapagos coffee with continental production.” Efforts by the Government of Ecuador to prevent this from happening are only just getting under way. On the other hand, international audits of origin are not possible at this time due to the prohibitive cost of third-party certification in relation to the volumes being produced.
Specialty appellation “As coffee consumers and connoisseurs
around the world become more aware of the challenges of producing coffee sustainably on the Galapagos Islands, they may demand proper certification of origin, which has the potential to increase prices paid to the producer,” the report concluded. “Among the opportunities for Galapagos coffee growers is the potential to market the Bourbon variety they grow as a ‘specialty’ coffee, however, the greatest gains for growers may come from obtaining a globally protected certification mark, meaning that only coffee certified by an authority in charge of labeling it and guaranteeing its origin.”
As the report says, certified coffees sell at a premium, highlighting examples such as Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee, Kona Coffee from Hawaii (this being the commercial name for coffee grown on the foothills of Hualalai and Mauna Loa in the north and south Kona Districts of the Big Island of Hawaii). Both coffees are among the most expensive coffees in the world. C&CI
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