Determining barriers to sustainability within the Costa Rican coffee industry

The Costa Rican coffee industry has been the subject of many sustainability plans, all of which have had a particular bias towards one aspect of sustainability or another. Following the sustainability evaluation framework discussed in previous work a significant gap was recognized between the requirements of a sustainable industry, which address all facets of sustainability (including all stakeholders – both producers and processors), and the present system. This was particularly so within aspects of institutional considerations and the lack of continuity when integrating processing considerations into sustainability considerations. The concerns, deficiencies and perceptions of the various stakeholders within the industry were documented in order to ensure a proper match between sustainability barriers and any steps that would be taken to address them. The inclusion of stakeholders' thoughts and perceptions was determined to be important in the establishment of any policy aimed at improving the overall sustainability of the coffee industry. Using the sustainability framework as the foundation for discussion, specific barriers to the application of sustainability were highlighted and discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.