Specialty coffee and jump of scales: analysis of the spatial productive circuit and circles of cooperation of specialty coffee in Southern Minas Gerais

Author(s)

Marcela Barone

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Rio Claro. 2017-03-09.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Instituto de Geociências e Ciências Exatas. Rio Claro
• Defense date: 2017-01-12
• Advisor: Samuel Frederico

Abstract

After the deregulation of the coffee market, since the 1990s, and the subsequent international coffee crisis, many Brazilian coffee producers have sought to insert themselves in the specialty coffee market as an alternative to the conventional coffee production. Therefore, the aim of this research was to analyze the spatial productive circuit and circles of cooperation of specialty coffees in Southern Minas Gerais, particularly of Fair Trade, Organic and Gourmet. For this purpose, we have analyzed three relevant cases: Cooperativa dos Produtores de Café Especial de Boa Esperança, Cooperativa dos Agricultores Familiares de Poço Fundo and Cooperativa Regional dos Cafeicultores do Vale do Rio Verde. Our intention was to examine whether the insertion in these spatial productive circuits has provided a jump of scale for the organized small-scale coffee producers. It is understood that the inseparable notion of spatial productive circuit and circles of cooperation are clearly trans-scalar. Thus, we have based our research on these concepts to verify the relations of cooperation and competition between some agents in the different geographical scales. Although coffee production is strongly bounded to the logic of commodities, the cooperatives here analyzed have appropriated some specificities of the specialty coffee market as a means of strengthening their social cohesion. Overall, it was understood that the insertion of these small-scales cooperatives in the spatial productive circuit of the specialty coffee market has allowed the expansion of the producers’ geographical scale. However, the translation of the jump of scales into empowerment has presented limitations, being more expressive in the case of Fair Trade and Organic coffee than in the Gourmet one. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 14/09376-6 - Spatial productive circuit and circles of cooperation of specialty coffee: analyze of fair trade, organic and gourmet in Brazil
• Grantee: Marcela Barone
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master