Blue Agave Commodity Chain Analysis

Blue Agave Commodity Chain
Blue agave, the common name for Agave tequilana, is an agave plant grown primarily in the state of Jalisco, Mexico. Due to the plant’s high production of sugars, especially fructose, it is utilized to make tequila and all tequila is produced from blue agave. This paper is divided into five parts. First, I provide background on the structure of the agave-tequila industry and agave growing conditions, to explain the cycles of surplus and shortage that characterize the industry. Second, I show how these cycles of surplus and shortage impede farmers’ ability to earn a livelihood and increase household economic insecurity. Third, I explain the environmental practices and ramifications of growing blue agave. Fourth, I
To quantify this shift, in 2000, Jalisco produced 97% of Mexican agave, but only 80% in 2006 (SAGARPA) 2006). The shortage in agave production is attributed to the cultivation time for agave (six to ten years), the myopic and unsustainable behavior of tequila companies, and the poor relationships between farmers and tequila companies who purchase the agave (Gonzalez 2002). In 1999, the blue agave industry was subject to a devastating shortage after the incredible surpluses of the mid-1990s. An early winter frost, fungal infection, and the cyclical nature of blue agave production caused Jalisco’s production to fall by 50.7% (Gonzalez 2002). This shortage resulted in a spike of agave, which was 2.19 pesos per kilogram in 1998 to 26.67 pesos per kilogram in 2002 (expressed in real 2015 terms, Macías and Valenzuela 2008). Due to this unexpected spike in prices, some farmers became fabulously wealthy and many tequila companies were forced to exit the market due to their inability to pay such prices (Bowen 2008). Furthermore, production did not recover until 2003 due to Scyphophorus acupunctatus, commonly referred to as the agave weevil (Figueroa-Castro and Solís-Aguilar 2013). Currently, the agave market is in a surplus, and in 2006, 769,000 tons of the 1.2 million tons of harvested agave were utilized in production, leaving some producers with rotting agave plants.
The practice of chemical fertilization has increased since the pest infestation that killed 25% of the agave population in Jalisco between 1993 to 1999 (Ramirez 2002). Unfortunately, however, farmers are ill informed about the recommended rates of pesticide usage and base their application rates on the advice of agrochemical vendors, presenting a clear conflict of interest (Valenzuela 2005). The switch to chemical-intensive farming practices is caused by the desires of small landholders to imitate the “technological packet” required by distilleries (Landeros 2005), labor shortages caused by the migration of family members from the farms to urban centers (Herrera 2004), and the growing trend in the agave-tequila industry to value the chemical inputs recommended by engineers over the experience of farmers (Bowen 2008). There is a direct relationship between the application of fertilizers and the price of agave, due primarily to farmers’ desires to either save money on inputs or spend money on inputs (Valenzuela 2005). Similarly, we can extrapolate farmers are less likely to hire workers to assist them with maintaining the crop when prices are low. Therefore, the social and economic