The documentary “Guatemala/Mexico- Coffee Country” has been made up by S. Quinones and J. Rubin on 2003. The main idea that these two people try to show through this documentary film is why the residents of Guatemala and Southern Mexico continuously migrate to some city or some border area by leaving off their old coffee cultivating occupation. These two persons also have tried to recognize the issues that are responsible for this dramatic migration so that they can try to address these issues. These two persons have made a journey on different coffee estate place in order to examine the actual situation[1]. They have found that most of the families that were initially engaging in the coffee cultivation now migrate to the city. Only few families left in these cities and they still try to carry on this cultivation using their family saving. They also found that some of the coffee workers form cooperative society to keep on the coffee cultivation. However, at present this co operative society has been experiencing very miserable condition as now they do not find any place to sell their coffee production. In this documentary it is argued that, the low coffee price in the world market is the main reason behind the migration from coffee cultivating are to some other urban area for new job searching. At present, Brazil and Vietnam is using more advanced production technique in their coffee cultivation. This advanced technology helps these countries to sell coffee in the world market in relatively low price. However, this advanced technology is not adopted in the coffee production in the Guatemala. Therefore, they are not able to sell high price coffee in the world market anymore. Since the main earnings of this Guatemala come from this coffee cultivation and its export to different countries, therefore this low demand and sometimes no demand for coffee put the people under the tragic situation. These two people also found some other reasons that also discourage these Guatemalan people to left their old occupation[2]. One of the most significant cases is the existence of middleman between the coffee cultivators and the final buyers[3]. However, in this documentary, some suggestions have been try to express in order to resolve the issues that are mentioned above[4]. In this documentary, it has been depicted that if the coffee workers form a cooperative and follow all the international environmental guideline, they can able to reduce the production cost in the coffee cultivation. This low production cost enables them to offer the coffee bean in the international market in the relatively low price like Brazil, Vietnam. Moreover, this coffee cultivator sells their product directly to the fair trade buyers, and then also they will be benefitted more. In this document, it has been also shown that, some farmers in Guatemala send their children for higher education. They are expecting that this higher education will enable them and other coffee farmer also to make use of advanced technology in the coffee cultivation[5]. However, has also mentioned in the film that the coffee farmer should be cautious about the quality of the coffee beans as the buyers in the coffee market prefers to consume coffee with good taste. They do not bother about the sources of the coffee beans[6]. Hence, from the above analysis it can be said that in the presence of high competition, the coffee makers in the Guatemala should pdate themselves in order to make them more efficient.
REFERENCES
Fridell, Gavin, ‘Coffee Statecraft: Rethinking The Global Coffee Crisis, 1998–2002’ (2013) 19 New Political Economy
BBC News, Coffee Crisis: Fungus Destroys Guatemala Crops – BBC News (2015) <http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-21256909>
Pbs.org, FRONTLINE/WORLD . Guatemala/Mexico – Fair Grounds . The Story | PBS (2015) <http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/guatemala.mexico/thestory.html>
Struggling, Coffee, UN World Food Program (2014) Wfp.org <https://www.wfp.org/stories/guatemalans-affected-coffee-rust-barely-make-ends-meet>
Tran, Mark, Trouble Brewing In Guatemala’s Coffee And Cardamom Fields | Mark Tran (2013) the Guardian <http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/oct/16/guatemala-coffee-cardamom-farmers>
USA, Fair, The Silent Disaster You’ve Never Heard Of, And How Fair Trade Can Help (2013) Triple Pundit: People, Planet, Profit <http://www.triplepundit.com/special/future-of-fair-trade/coffee-crisis-silent-disaster-youve-never-heard/>
[1] BBC News, Coffee Crisis: Fungus Destroys Guatemala Crops – BBC News (2015) <http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-21256909>.
[2] Pbs.org, FRONTLINE/WORLD . Guatemala/Mexico – Fair Grounds . The Story | PBS (2015) <http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/guatemala.mexico/thestory.html>.
[3] Gavin Fridell, ‘Coffee Statecraft: Rethinking The Global Coffee Crisis, 1998–2002’ (2013) 19 New Political Economy.
[4] Coffee Struggling, UN World Food Program (2014) Wfp.org <https://www.wfp.org/stories/guatemalans-affected-coffee-rust-barely-make-ends-meet>.
[5] Fair USA, The Silent Disaster You’ve Never Heard Of, And How Fair Trade Can Help (2013) Triple Pundit: People, Planet, Profit <http://www.triplepundit.com/special/future-of-fair-trade/coffee-crisis-silent-disaster-youve-never-heard/>.
[6] Mark Tran, Trouble Brewing In Guatemala’s Coffee And Cardamom Fields | Mark Tran (2013) the Guardian <http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/oct/16/guatemala-coffee-cardamom-farmers>.
