Following a slowdown during the 1917-1918 crisis, coffee production on the central East Coast of Madagascar recorded a remarkable growth rate, unaffected by the general crisis of 1921-1922. As noted by historian Jean Fremigacci, after a long period of trial and error marked by the abandonment of unprofitable crops like rubber, cocoa, and Liberian coffee, colonial farmers in the region identified suitable coffee varieties, such as ‘Narras’ and ‘Agron’ from Mananjary and Vatomandry for the ‘koulou’ variety, and ‘Brée’ from Vatomandry for the ‘robusta’ variety.
While the number of colonial settlers in Vatomandry and Mahanoro stabilized at around fifty—mostly Creoles—those in better-connected Mananjary showed greater dynamism, with the number of planters rising from twenty-one in 1910 to about a hundred by 1926. However, this prosperity was short-lived. Between 1926 and 1934, the colonial agricultural sector faced the fatal combination of repeated cyclones and a collapse in global coffee prices.
Although cyclones and price drops were cited as causes, they often served to mask a deeper structural crisis that the colonial administration and settlers were reluctant to admit. Colonists frequently ignored production costs and used the damage caused by natural disasters to request excessive financial aid from the administration, citing chronic issues like a lack of capital and labor shortages. Inspector Poirier noted that some settlers sought debt forgiveness as easily as the remission of sins, with some requests being financially irrational compared to their actual production levels.
Ultimately, these crises served as indicators of the inherent precariousness of the plantation economy. Jean Fremigacci concludes that the root cause lay in the crisis of the production mode characteristic of the early colonial era, primarily defined by the exploitative labor relations between settlers and the local population, as well as the economic behaviors developed upon that fragile foundation.
Captured & Published at: 2026-07-11 07:13:05 (Madagascar Local Time EAT)
Original Source: https://www.lexpress.mg/2026/07/leconomie-de-plantation-se-revele-tres.html
