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The following excerpt is from a May 19, 2010 article published by Reuters. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
SAN LUCAS TOLIMAN, Guatemala, May 19 (Reuters) – Mexico and Central America could lose around a third of land suitable to grow coffee as global warming hurts conditions for the best quality beans, a study of regional farms shows.
Specialty arabica coffee, the pride of countries like Guatemala, grows inside a very narrow band of altitude and temperature making it particularly sensitive to small changes in the climate.
At the current rate temperatures are rising, there could be at least a 30 percent net loss in land suitable to farm coffee in Mexico and Central America by 2050 forcing many farmers to turn to different crops, said Peter Laderach, a lead researcher at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture…
Click here to read the rest of the article, here to read about the Guatemalan economy, or here to read about the environment.
The following excerpt is from a May 12, 2010 article published by the E-Commerce Journal. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
Guatemala, that represents developing country that still faces many social problems, is among the 10 poorest countries in Latin America. The country is bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast. So, we are to find out today what level of development Guatemala’s Internet and e-commerce infrastructure has reached…
Click here to read the rest of the article, or here to read more articles related to the Guatemalan economy.
The following excerpt is from an April 29, 2010 article published by CompaniesAndMarkets.com. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
When taken as a whole, the pharmaceutical market of Central America is an attractive prospect for drugmakers. Combined sales of prescription drugs and over-the-counter (OTC) medicines are forecast to increase from US$2.35bn in 2009 to US$2.49bn in 2010. This equates to respectable 6.1% growth and makes Central America’s pharmaceutical market the sixth-largest in Latin America, behind Puerto Rico (US$2.71bn) and ahead of Colombia (US$2.24bn).
However, market access is challenging, mainly because the seven countries that comprise Central America lack regional harmonisation with respect to approvals, pricing and reimbursement. Our Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare Business Environment Ratings reveals that Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Belize should not be priorities for drugmakers looking to penetrate Latin America. Individually, the Central America countries are secondary or even tertiary emerging markets for pharmaceutical firms.
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Central America has limited domestic manufacturing and is therefore dependent on pharmaceutical imports. The region’s negative trade balance is forecast to increase from -US$1.21bn in 2009 to – US$2.05bn in 2014. Imports are generally from the US, Western Europe and Mexico.
An under-developed healthcare sector is the main constraint on Central America’s clinical trials sector. Between 2006 and 2009, a total of 222 clinical studies were conducted in the region. To put this in context, neighbouring Mexico hosted 181 clinical trials in 2009 alone…
Click here to read the rest of the article, or here to read more articles related to health & safety.
NamasteDirect has issued its latest newsletter. In addition to other articles, the letter focused on a recent New York Times article that called into question some aspects of microfinance. The following excerpt (emphasis added) is from their April 2010 newsletter. A more in-depth analysis can be found on their website, which you can access by clicking here.
Our phones have been ringing off the hook these past few days as a result of the recent New York Times article about microfinance that wasn’t very positive. We thought we’d take the opportunity to talk about the issues raised and how NamasteDirect is distinguishing itself from the ‘pack.’
The four principal themes of the article are:
1. Microfinance banks (MFI’s) are making big profits from high and sometimes-unconscionable interest rates.
Most MFI’s charge what the market will bear, or what they think they need to cover all their operating costs. The common perception is that poor clients aren’t interest rate sensitive. In some cases rates are as high as 100+%. They do this because a main goal is to be profitable. The industry wide average rate is about 37%.
Because NamasteDirect’s mission is to assist borrowers in building businesses that have the potential to be bankable in the commercial sector, we use average commercial bank rates to set our rates. This right now is between 18-24% amortized on a declining balance.
2. The beneficial effects of microloans are debatable.
There is no question that small loans to the poor provide benefits of smoothing out cash flow and of minimizing the cyclicality of income, a huge benefit for families living one crisis away from not being able too eat. However there is little to no empirical data to show that people are moving up and out of poverty as a specific result of their loan. It is not a panacea for poverty as many have claimed.
Our primary focus is specifically on increasing the cash flow (income) of women’s businesses that receive loans. We measure monthly cash flow, we support the client with a business advisor for each loan cycle and we provide financial literacy training, all to increase their chances of success.
3. Transparency is lacking, sometimes intentionally so.
Most MFI’s (both for profit banks, and non-profit groups) are disingenuous about interest rates charged on their loans. For example, what is represented as a flat rate of 3% per month (or 36% per year) is actually over 60% according to standard accounting principles. That’s because interest is typically charged on the original principal balance throughout the life of the loan even though the balance is declining!
At Namaste both the clients and the public are advised up front that the loan APR is 22%. If anyone asks “how do you calculate the interest charge?”, we say “by using a flat rate of 1% a month on the original loan throughout the life of the loan.” We feel that it is important to be honest with borrowers, with donors and with potential investors.
4. Lenders are coming under scrutiny, sometimes with embarrassing results.
We think this is a good thing. Recently, the global economy barely survived a complete and total melt down because lenders were (and still are) under inadequate scrutiny by government regulators, by investors, by auditors, by financial institutions, by the press and by the general public.
The Namaste position is “let the sun shine in.” It can only result in betterment for borrowers, institutions, and society at large.
To learn more about NamasteDirect, or to subscribe to their newsletter, please visit their website.
The following excerpt is from an April 2, 2010 article published by ApparelNews.net. To read the article in its entirety, click here.
GUATEMALA CITY—Inside the cinderblock walls of the Los Volcanes knitting mill, located just outside of Guatemala City, the rows of metal machinery are old, but the ownership is new.
In 2008, the mill was called Supratex until a local bank took it over to pay off the company’s debts. The massive machines that turn yarn into fiber stood dormant for nine months until a company called Los Volcanes Group bought the plant at a 60 percent discount and revved up production last fall.
In many ways, Los Volcanes epitomizes the ebb and flow of the Guatemalan apparel and textile industry during the last two years.
With more than 90 percent of its apparel exports going to the United States, Guatemala was hard hit by the U.S. economic recession. After consumers curtailed spending, the Central American country’s apparel exports to the United States declined 21 percent to $1.1 billion in 2009.
But times have changed…
Click here to read the rest of the article, or here to read more articles related to the Guatemalan economy.
The following excerpt is from an April 1, 2010 article published by the Houston Business Journal. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
An AEI Services LLC subsidiary has closed on long-term financing to build a 300-megawatt power plant in Guatamala.
Jaguar Energy Guatamala LLC received a $350-million, 10-year loan from a syndicate led by Banca de Inversion Bancolombia Corporación Financiera SA and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration. Jaguar Energy will in turn pay a Chinese company, China Machine New Energy Corp., to build the solid fuel-fired plant near Puerto Quetzal.
Gas Natural’s local electricity distribution companies are under contract to buy 200 MW of the power from Jaguar Energy, starting at the onset of commercial operation in 2013.
“Jaguar Energy will provide Guatemala with reliable and affordable energy, which will contribute to improving the overall economic environment and investment conditions for Guatemala,” said Roberto Figueroa, AEI’s executive vice president for Central America and the Caribbean…
Click here to read the rest of the article, or here to read more articles related to the Guatemalan economy.
The following excerpt is from a March 19, 2010 article published by The Economic Times. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
MEXICO CITY: Internet giant Google is adding two native Central American languages — Maya and Nahuatl — to its universal search service, a company official said Thursday.
Searches in these two pre-Columbian languages and mobile satellite-linked connections to the Internet are part of Google’s growth strategy,” Google’s Mexico marketing technology director Miguel de Alva said.
“The two languages are of interest to online searchers because the first (Maya) is spoken by 1.5 million people and the second (Nahuatl), by more than one million.”…
Click here to read the rest of the article, or here to read more articles related to the Guatemalan economy.
The following excerpt is from a March 11, 2010 article published by Red Orbit. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
Central American shrimp and lobster populations are being threatened by illegal fishing and climate change, experts said on Thursday.
The decline of such species is a huge impact on the two-billion-dollar-a-year fishing industry and could affect as many as 136,000 jobs.
“Pollution and warmer waters are impacting our species,” especially shrimp and lobster, said Mario Gonzalez, director of the Central American Organization of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Sectors (OSPESCA).
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Members of the Central American Integration System, which includes El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama, have recently banned lobster fishing from March 1 to June 30 with the hope it will give the species a chance to make a comeback, officials said…
Click here to read the rest of the article, here to read articles related to the environment, or here to read articles related to the economy.
The following excerpt is from a March 11, 2010 article published by Business Week. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
The Guatemalan chicken chain established a niche with immigrants in the U.S. Now it’s hungry for more.
Carla Flores emigrated to Chicago from Honduras 27 years ago. Her husband, Eric Ruiz, moved from Guatemala. He never forgot his favorite chicken back home—and for that Flores is thankful. We’re talking about Pollo Campero, the fried chicken chain that’s the McDonald’s (MCD) of Guatemala and making a dent in the U.S. fast-food market, with 53 stores in 15 states since its 2002 arrival. Flores and her daughter, Eugenia, drive a couple of miles to a Pollo Campero in Chicago three times a month just to get a taste. “It brings us back to Guatemala,” says Eugenia.
Immigrants helped bring Pollo Campero to the U.S. Now, as part of the family-owned Guatemala City-based company’s global goal of reaching 1,750 franchises over the next decade, the chain is expanding beyond its Spanish-speaking base in places such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington. In the U.S. alone, Pollo Campero aims to grow tenfold, putting it on a collision course with established companies such as KFC (YUM) and Church’s Chicken, as well as rival up-and-comers like El Pollo Loco and Pollo Tropical (TAST)…
Click here to read the rest of the article, or here to read more articles related to the Guatemalan economy.
The following excerpt is from a March 9, 2010 article published by Commodity Online. Click here to read the article in its entirety.
GUATEMALA CITY (Commodity Online) : Central American republic of Guatemala said its sugar exports to neighbor Mexico surged to close to 200,000 metric tons this fiscal.
According to Guatemalan Sugar Growers Association, this compares to last year where Guatemala didn’t export one single ton of sugar to Mexico from the 2008-09 harvest.
The surge in Guatemalan sugar shipments to Mexico comes as Mexico’s 2009-10 harvest has fallen behind the year-ago pace by more than 15%, widening the local supply shortage created by Mexico’s harvest last year that also ended sharply below expectations…
Click here to read the rest of the article, or here to read more articles related to the Guatamalan economy.
The following excerpt is from a March 1, 2010 article published by Reuters. Click here to read the article in its entirety.
More coffee drinking coupled with climate change have reduced supplies of beans, producers said at an international conference over the weekend.
“There is already evidence of important changes,” said Nestor Osorio, the head of the International Coffee Organization, which represents 77 countries that export or import beans. “In the last 25 years the temperature has risen half a degree in coffee producing countries…
Click here to read the rest of the article, here to read more articles related to the Guatemalan economy, or here to read articles related to the Guatemalan environment.
The following excerpt is from a February 26, 2010 article by The Abundance Farming Project (AFP), and hosted by Google News. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
GUATEMALA CITY — Coffee producers say they are getting hammered by global warming, with higher temperatures forcing growers to move to prized higher ground, putting the cash crop at risk.
“There is already evidence of important changes” said Nestor Osorio, head of the International Coffee Organization (ICO), which represents 77 countries that export or import the beans.
“In the last 25 years the temperature has risen half a degree in coffee producing countries, five times more than in the 25 years before,” he said.
Sipped by hundreds of millions of people worldwide, coffee is one of the globe’s most important commodities, and a major mainstay of exports for countries from Brazil to Indonesia.
But producers meeting in Guatemala this week are in a state of panic over the impact of warming on their livelihoods…
Click here to read the rest of the article, here to read more articles related to the Guatemalan economy, or here to read more articles realted to the Guatemalan environment.
The following excerpt is from a February 25, 2010 article pubished by The Guatemala Times. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
Guatemala – The green Gold of Guatemala is Cardamom. 23,000 tones of cardamom are cultivated in Guatemala annually.
This makes Guatemala the world’s largest exporter. Guatemala’s cardamom production sets the prices in the global market. When the production of Cardamom decreases in Guatemala, the prices on the international markets go up. Guatemala exports its entire crop to the Middle East where cardamom is used as an ingredient in drinks and food. When the quality and quantity of the spice from Guatemala drop, global prices climb.
United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Pakistan, Jordan, Syria and Kuwait consume Guatemala’s “green gold”…
Click here to read the rest of the article, or here to read more articles related to the Guatemalan economy.
here is an account of countries around the world with educational shortcomings. Guatemala is on the list of countries where over 30% of young adults have fewer than four years of education. I encourage everyone to skim the article as it’s really quite eye opening.
I think some of the solutions discussed in the article would be a good start, but I question how well they would solve the root causes of a struggling education system. Private sector education is difficult to roll out to the broad community, which presents an accessibility issue. Performance related pay might actually dissuade potential candidates from entering the profession.
Once again, the article can be found here
The following excerpt is from a February 25, 2010 article published by The Wall Street Journal Online. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
GUATEMALA CITY (Dow Jones)–Harvesting of Guatemala’s current 2009-10 coffee crop continues at slow pace and weather problems are making a recovery more difficult, Guatemala’s National Coffee Association, or Anacafe, said Thursday.
“We are still sticking to our last forecast, but the harvest in the eastern coffee producing regions has not been good,” Anacafe President Ricardo Villanueva told Dow Jones Newswires.
Villanueva said that although Anacafe still hopes Guatemalan coffee production in the 2009-10 cycle will end “a bit above production” in the last harvest year, output continues to be “well below the yields” seen in a harvest with normal weather…
Click here to read the rest of the article, or here to read more articles related to Guatemalan economics.
Here is an article on recent support of Guatemala by the European Union (EU) to the tune of 33.8 million Euros.
“Guatemala City. The EU new initiative supports the five strategic objectives of the Strategic Plan for Food Security and Nutrition (PESAN, Plan Estratégico de Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional) from 2009-2012 and will benefit the entire Guatemalan population, with particular attention to the most vulnerable rural population. The donation of the European Union for this program amounts to 33.8 million Euros (about 400 million quetzals).”
What I appreciate most about this EU effort is its focus on preventing future food crises rather than simply alleviating current problems in the form of food subsidies. The ultimate goal, of course, is sustainable food safety and nutrition in Guatemala, which is key to a larger public health initiative.
Please click here for the article.
The following excerpt is from a February 12, 2010 article published by Business News Americas. To read the entire article please click here.
Guatemala’s US$12bn technological corridor project (CTG) to link ports on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans will get underway in June this year, northeastern municipalities’ association head Álvaro Olavarrueth told BNamericas.
The corridor will be 327km long and 140m wide, spanning the Izabal, El Progreso, Zacapa, Chiquimula, Jalapa and Jutiapa departments, and will include a four-lane highway, cargo rail line, and interoceanic oil and gas pipelines. The initiative also involves the construction of two new ports in Izabal and Jutiapa departments, as well as an airport.
The project, first conceived some ten years ago as a “dry canal”, will be funded almost entirely by the private sector via concessions…
Click here to read the rest of the article, or here to read more articles related to the Guatemalan economy.
The following excerpt is from a February 3, 2010 article published in The New York Times. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
In Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, they wait on corners for odd jobs, sending as much money as they can back home to Guatemala. They gather at the small churches that double as community centers. They sleep in apartments crowded with friends and family.
And when members of the community die, as five did in a terrible blaze last weekend, they reach into meager savings to help send the bodies back home.
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The workers say they are here simply to make money and, when they do, they try to send as much as possible to wives, children, parents and siblings. But recently there has not been enough to pay for themselves, let alone to subsidize others, so they come out again the next day, and stand in the cold waiting for work, seven days a week…
Click here to read the rest of the article, or here to read articles about the Guatemalan Economy.
The following excerpt is from a January 26, 2010 article published by The Seattle Times. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
Reuters reports that Starbucks has reduced purchases of Costa Rican coffee this year. Guatemalan growers said in December that Starbucks was slow buying their coffee, too, and some speculated then that the company was angling for lower prices…
Click here to read the rest of the article, or here to read articles about the Guatemalan Economy.
The following excerpt was taken from an article published in Taiwan News on January 15, 2010. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
Taipei, Jan. 15 (CNA) Vice President Vincent Siew said Friday that the government will continue to promote investment in Guatemala and that a proposed investment by a major Taiwanese business group could greatly benefit the Central American country.Siew, in a meeting with a delegation led by Guatemala Economics Minister Ruben Morales Monroy, noted that since the two countries signed a free trade agreement (FTA) in 2006, Guatemala exports to Taiwan have increased significantly.
Expressing the hope that the trend will continue so as to help Guatemela’s economic growth, Siew said, however, Taiwan investment in the country is still not high.
“But Taiwan will continue to promote this aspect,” Siew said. The Formosa Plastics Group is interested in investing in Guatemala, and the if plan goes through, it will be of great benefit to the Central American country, he added.
To read the rest of the article, please click here. To read more about the Guatemalan Economy, click here.
The following excerpt is from a January 10, 2010 article from mydigitalfc.com, out of India. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
(emphasis added)
Since early 2006, cardamom prices have been on an upward trajectory. As the harvesting season ends, there are reports of lower arrivals in the mandis in Kerala, a key cardamom-producing state. Prices of the aromatic spice have already touched a record high of Rs 1,000 per kg. While demand for spice has been consistently on the rise in India, the key reasons for the bullish trend in prices during the last two-three months is higher export demand and fall in production. Since mid-October, when festival demand started picking up, especially in North India, the rates have been shooting up. The major producers of cardamom are Kerala (70 per cent), Karnataka (20 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (10 per cent).
However, Ajitesh Mullick, incharge of agri-research at Religare Commodities, believes that the main reason for the rise in prices is the reported fall in production in Guatemala, where floods in cardamom growing areas have reportedly affected the crop. Reports indicate that production in the Latin American country declined to 14,000-15,000 tonnes in 2009 from 19,000-20,000 tonnes in 2008.
Click here to read the rest of this article, or here to read more about the Guatemalan Economy.
To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
Look for a profile on Farmer to Farmer in the next few days!
Sunday, January 10, 2010 7:06 AM CST
For THE NEWS
GLENWOOD CITY – As economies struggle around the globe, one small, Wisconsin-based nonprofit is gearing up to increase its support of small coffee growers in Latin America.
Farmer to Farmer began importing high quality, shade-grown coffee from the Lake Atitlan area of Guatemala in 2000, a time when coffee prices had plummeted worldwide. This year, the organization expanded its offerings to include a line of certified organic Honduran coffee, and it is exploring a source for certified organic, Guatemalan beans.
Farmer to Farmer has recently contracted with Cari Witcher of Downsville, to help market the coffee directly and through retailers. A long-time member and former board member, Witcher’s enthusiasm for and knowledge about the organization and its coffee project have been enhanced by her five visits to Guatemala with other Farmer to Farmer members.
Greater, more reliable income
The group’s goal is to significantly increase sales in order to support more small farmers in Latin America with a fair price for their coffee. Being able to count on a higher price gives these families an income security they would not otherwise have. World coffee prices are around 60 to 70 cents per pound, and fair trade certification requires a minimum payment to growers of $1.26 per pound, $1.41 minimum for certified organic (www.globalexchange.org).
Farmer to Farmer pays $2.07 to $2.50 per pound to the grower or to the cooperative of growers. Because the street price for coffee fluctuates daily, this fixed price is very important to the growers and can be nearly three times what they might receive on the open market.
To read the rest of the article, please click here.
The following excerpt is from an August 27th, 2009 article published by the Economist. This article does a great job of highlighting some public health issues facing the nation. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
It is hardly one of Latin America’s poorest countries, but according to Unicef almost half of Guatemala’s children are chronically malnourished—the sixth-worst performance in the world. In parts of rural Guatemala, where the population is overwhelmingly of Mayan descent, the incidence of child malnutrition reaches 80%. A diet of little more than tortillas does permanent damage.
This chronic problem has become acute. Higher world prices for food have coincided with a recession-induced fall in money sent back from Guatemalans working in the United States (remittances equal 12% of Guatemala’s GDP). Drought in eastern Guatemala has made things worse still. Many families can scarcely afford beans, an important source of protein, and must sell eggs from their hens rather than feed them to their children.
Click here to read the rest of the article.
The following is an excerpt from an article published on December 29, 2009 in Brunei FM World News. To read the article in full, please click here.
GUATEMALA, Dec 29 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) – A unit known as the National Coordinating Cell of the Euro Solar Programme (CNC) was created in Guatemala.
Official paper El Diario de Centro America reported that unit created by the Energy and Mine Ministry would encourage solar energy generation, mainly in the rural area.
The paper said that the government stressed the importance of electrifying the country, as stated in the constitution, with state and private sector involvement.
The government will also boost the use of new, renewable sources of energy, as well as their rational use and to attain energy self-sufficiency in the country.
The programme will be sponsored by the Ministries of Education and Public Health and Social Security thus allowing rural populations to access solar energy for community use, the text reads.
To read the remainder of this article, please click here.
The following excerpt is from a November 3, 2009 article published in The Guatemala News. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
In a new Survey on Remittances 2009, Children and Adolescents, the eighth in this IOM-Guatemala series and jointly produced with UNICEF, confirms the negative impact of the financial crisis on children and adolescents in Guatemala. The decline in remittances from family members abroad has forced tens of thousands of children to leave school and find work to supplement the family income.
Amongst the 3,000 households interviewed by IOM and UNICEF, 8.7 per cent of the children between 7 and 17 years-old can no longer attend school and 7.4 per cent or 92,905 children of the same age have been forced to find jobs to supplement the family income. “Forty-two per cent of these children were in school in 2008. This confirms the direct impact of the financial crisis on the choices families are making,” explains Delbert Field, IOM Chief of Mission in Guatemala.
Click here to read the rest of the article, or here to read more about Economics & Guatemala.
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