Still, enticed by the previous year's success, more farmers took the plunge. The results were disastrous. Crop prices dropped as global competition heightened. Half of the farmers defaulted on their credit, and the forty who persisted defaulted in the following year. The El Indio experience and many others like it provide a cautionary tale of the pitfalls of pushing exports at all costs.
Small farmers face hurdles at every step along the way.
In Guatemala, for example, the initial investment to plant nontraditional export crops ranges from five to fifteen times higher than that for traditional corn and beans. 53 Crossing this barrier means taking out risky credit and loans that frequently have interest rates biased against poor farmers and can easily lead to losing the farm after a bad harvest. The fate of small farmers in the nontraditionals industry has been similar to their fate with traditional exports and in the Green Revolution. Nontraditionals are expensive to produce-requiring enormous quantities of pesticide, fertilizer, and technical expertise, favoring larger, better capitalized producers. Because these are perishable products, small farmers are often unable to place their produce in Northern markets with quality standards, giving the edge to the giant fruit companies.