International Markets and Perspectives for Central American Traditional Exports: Coffee, Cotton and Bananas

Any recovery plan for the Central American economies must take into account the huge dependency on exports of green coffee, raw cotton and bananas. This analysis will outline the conditions of the world market for these exports, particularly in the European Economic Community (EEC). If Central American countries come out of the political crisis within a framework of peace, rapid economic recuperation will be needed, which will rely on traditional exports. In this chapter the main characteristics of the world markets and their long-run tendencies will be discussed, as well as trends in the 1980s. The evolution of prices for the three products will be a particularly important topic. The perspectives of the EEC markets will also be dealt with, with consideration of their generally oligopolistic nature. In the final part, some conclusions will be drawn and a comparative table is presented with the general outlook for the three principal traditional Central American export commodities.