Nicaragua

The Rocky Start of Coffee

The specialty coffee industry in Nicaragua has been hindered by decades of unstable political systems, civil war, and natural disasters. In 1979, a group of Marxist intellectuals rose up to then-president Samoza, whose family had ruled the country since 1939. A bloody civil war ensued, with the National Sandinista Liberation Front (or ‘Sandinistas’ – named after the man who formed Nicaragua’s first cooperative) emerging victorious and inheriting a mess. The countryside was decimated, there were 40,000 casualties. As the new state tried to bolster the coffee industry by seizing Samoza coffee holdings (15 percent of the country’s fincas) and establishing ENCAFE (Nicaraguan Coffee Company) as the sole buyer and seller of Nicaraguan coffee, it was clear that the new regime knew little about coffee. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, many coffee farms were abandoned or ignored and rebel Contras targeted coffee mills and transport as a key element of their campaign. The United States’ embargo on Nicaraguan imports – declared in 1985 – dealt a further blow to the industry, and even as the Sandanistas were ushered out in 1990’s national elections, the coffee industry continued to struggle. In 1998, Hurricane Mitch ravaged the country, destroying much of the infrastructure and displacing tens of thousands of coffee farmers and workers. This was followed by the coffee crisis of 1999-2003 which had a devastating effect on the country and the coffee industry.