Cooperativismo no setor cafeeiro no estado do Espírito Santo, 1950 - 1970

Abstract

The approach of a theme about the cooperativism of a economic sector, such as coffee, is to search knowledge about the spirit and ideals of the human being in the search for social and economic cooperation. It consists in finding in a human collective, the causes that lead to aggregation and solidarity action. Coffee was, its implementation in the early 19th century until the end of the 1960s, the main product of the economy of the state of Espírito Santo. In the late 1950s and during the 1960s, coffee activity and cooperativism had an high relationship, with the creation of a coffee cooperative all over the state. The objective of this research is to identify the factors that took farmers to adapt cooperativism. The methodological universe will be that of micro history, as the research covers a limited period of time and for a specific product.The research will be descriptive, by bibliographic review on the history of cooperativism in the world and in Brazil, with a theoretical and doctrinal construction on cooperativism. Also by bibliographic review and with a database and information, the history of colonization and structuring of coffee production in Espírito Santo was studied, in order to identify the causes of the advent of coffee cooperatives in the state. The results show that four factor contributed to the creation of coffee cooperatives. The first factor refers to the excessive presence of intermediation in the coffee sector, which caused low remuneration to coffee growers, a problem that could be solved via cooperatives. The second factor is related to the Italian ethnic origin of the most Espírito Santo coffee producers, who in times of difficulty, due to cultural attributes, are led to associationist and cooperation. The third and fourth factor for strengthening cooperatives in the coffee sector in Espírito Santo was the support of the Catholic Church and the support of the state and federal public authorities