Mesoamerican Coffee Forum: Innovation Opportunities for Mesoamerican and Caribbean Coffee Production

The Mesoamerican Coffee Forum: Innovation Opportunities for Mesoamerican and Caribbean Coffee Production aims to promote the strengthening of Mesoamerican linkages in the sector and to analyze relevant, topical issues,  such as the institutional framework to build resilience in the sector, successful examples of public-private strategic partnerships, market trends and opportunities for intra-regional coffee consumption.

This event stems from an agreement signed on 5 September 2019 between the Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER), and the Central American Agricultural Council (CAC), seeking to more effectively position Mesoamerican and Caribbean coffee and to prompt specific actions that contribute to strengthening competitiveness, profitability, sustainability and social well-being in the coffee sector.

The forum is being organized under the aegis of the Central American Program for the Integral Management of Coffee Rust (PROCAGICA), a European Union-funded program. It has received the support of national institutions with oversight of the Mesoamerican coffee sector, which will be represented at the forum by secretaries and ministers of agriculture of Mesoamerica and the Caribbean, executive and technical directors, private sector representatives, and coffee farmers (men, women and youth) and their families, as the main actors in this important agricultural activity.

Three panel discussions will explore and analyze the theme of the event, each featuring a keynote address, with success stories presented by renowned international experts. Panel 1, “Institutional Framework of the Coffee Industry”, will highlight the pivotal role of institutions and policy as essential to innovation and competitiveness in the sector.

Panel 2, “Competitiveness and Innovation in the Coffee Chain”, will showcase success stories about strategic partnerships working to innovate in the coffee trade, based on business models that are currently being implemented in coffee producing countries.

“Market Trends and Opportunities for Intraregional Consumption” will be the topic of discussion in Panel 3. Based on a presentation of the results of a PROCAGICA study in the Mesoamerican region, the presenters will analyze the status of the global and regional coffee market, as well as prospects for change and opportunities for coffee producers in the region.

The conclusions arising out of the event will inform the development of effective and efficient proposals that add value to coffee activity in the region amidst the current situation in the sector, which has suffered a serious blow to the profitability of its production activity.

This situation, in addition to other equally important challenges that are facing the coffee farmer, calls for the timely and correct application of principles, consistent with the short- and medium-term realities of the Mesoamerican and Caribbean region.

The resulting proposals, their application and follow-up, require the commitment and political will of the institutions governing the coffee sector of each country, as well as the full participation of different national and regional actors involved in activities to support this important sector of the local, national and regional economies of Mesoamerica and the Caribbean.

Target public:

Ministries and Secretariats of Agriculture; national entities with oversight of coffee policy; coffee institutes; agricultural research institutes; actors in the agroindustrial coffee chain; coffee farming families; public and private companies; civil society; communication media.