Publication Date

Spring 5-11-2026

Document Type

Senior Integrative Project

Abstract

The International Coffee Agreement (ICA) was an export quota market agreement that governed the international coffee trade from September 1963 until 1989. During its nearly 30-year tenure, it had a strong regulatory function that was dedicated to stabilizing the global coffee industry. The collapse of the ICA in 1989 marked a critical turning point in the global coffee economy, triggering a sharp decline in prices and exposing producing countries to market volatility. This paper examines why national responses to this liberalization shock varied across Latin American coffee producers. By integrating the Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) and Global Value Chain (GVC) frameworks and comparing studies involving Colombia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Guatemala. this paper finds that countries maintaining strong, coordinated coffee institutions were better able to stabilize production. In contrast, countries without sufficiently supported institutions experienced greater volatility. These findings demonstrate that responses to the ICA collapse were not solely determined by global market forces, but by the interaction between domestic institutional complementarities and positioning within global value chains.

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The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author.