Coffee sector efficiency and equity: lesson learned from a comparative commodity chain analysis of Costa Rican and Kenyan coffee sector

Résumé En

Coffee sector is an important sector for small farmers in most of the producing countries, where it plays an important role in national economies. Despite the renowned quality of their production and the high price fetched by their coffee, some of the countries exhibit a pattern of declining production. Two of them, Costa Rica and Kenya, are presented here as case study for comparative purpose. The poster presents an analysis of the structure and the functioning of the commodity chain of coffee in Costa Rica and Kenya using available secondary data and genuine data of direct interview of stakeholders of the 2 commodity chain. We especially compare their efficiency, their pattern of income distribution and their impact on the small farmer access to market. The comparison showed that Kenya and Costa Rica have both a predominant smallholder coffee farmers sector. But they are enforcing 2 different types of regulation to facilitate farmers' access to market: Kenya chose an auction system while Costa Rica implemented a margin regulated commodity chain. The structure and governance of the 2 systems led to differential margin received by farmers. The difference in the level of cooperatives development appears as a key factor in the functioning of the commodity chain and small farmers access to market. Based on these results, we finally propose some specific key recommendations to improve small farmers access to market in both countries.