Producers' organizations facing changes in national economic policy: the case of Peruvian coffee growers cooperatives (1980-2006)

Abstract

The military regime, which ruled Peru between 1968 and 1980, organized the coffee trade based on the discourse that coffee growers' cooperatives should have primacy in the export of the grain before the "private" companies - it is a product that has foreign markets as the main destination. The end of the regime marks the return not only of democracy to the country but also of the "free market" ideas in the regulation of the national economy. During the 1980s, coffee growers - brought together in a "federation" of coffee producer cooperatives - opposed the "liberalization" of grain exports, which began at the beginning of the decade, arguing that they had withdrawn their commercial prerogatives. For their leaders or spokespersons, these prerogatives were legitimate. However, throughout this decade, private companies began to dominate the coffee trade in the national territory. In the early 1990s, the "coffee movement" rearticulated itself in a "guild" created by cooperatives that were part of the federation of coffee producer organizations. A new generation of leaders in this social movement came on the scene. It was formed by people who accepted as legitimate the idea of ​​"free competition" between agents linked to the commercialization of the grain. This text analyzes the positions of coffee growers' organizations in the face of changes in Peruvian economic policy, focusing on the speeches and actions of those who were ahead of them between 1980 and 2006.