Coffee production in Guatemala

[4] In 1850, for example, 93% of the colony's exports were in cochineal, the natural red dye created from the dried and crushed bugs of the coccidae family of scale insects.

By comparison, coffee could be cultivated in greater portions of the countryside,[7] attracted high market prices, was less perishable, and cheaper to transport across long distances.

For a newly independent state, integration of rural production into the international market promised a wider revenue base for the government.

[5] Despite suitable climate for cultivation, initial growth of coffee production was hindered by lack of knowledge and technology,[6] communication, cheap labor, and clear land title.

[8] However, these reforms were functionally useless so long as elites did not have access to the rural countryside and were further complicated by civil wars, banditry, and disease from the 1820s to 1840s.

[8] For a generation, indigenous communities in the countryside were abandoned by church and central government institutions, the former having been weakened by declining revenues and an adversarial relationship with the state.

[6] McCreery calls the rise of coffee production and export in the latter half of the 19th century as “the most fundamental change” in Guatemala’s institutions since the Spanish conquest.

This period of unprecedented change was ushered in by the Liberal Revolution of 1871 and the coinciding seizure of power by General Justo Rufino Barrios, himself a coffee planter.

[8] Barrios’ regime quickly began to increase coffee producers’ access to the rural countryside by encouraging private investors to expand and modernize the railroads, roads, telegraphs, and other infrastructure.

Ejidos were also where coffee producers could secure indigenous community members as a reliable, and reproducing, supply of cheap, seasonal labor.

The majority of the plantations were located in the departments of Guatemala, Amatitlan, Sacatepequez, Solola, Retalhuleu, Quezaltenango, San Marcos, and Alta Verapaz.

The regions are: Acatenango Valley, Antigua Coffee, Traditional Atitlan, Rainforest Coban, Fraijanes Plateau, Highland Huehue, New Oriente, and Volcanic San Marcos.