Central American farmers are fighting a devastating coffee disease caused by a fungus called “coffee rust”. The fungus is especially deadly to Arabica coffee and they predict crop losses of $500 million and the loss of 374,000 jobs this year. Most of our high-end specialty coffees are made up of Arabica coffee beans.
The fungus is orange-colored and is called Roya, or coffee leaf rust. It has swept through coffee fields from Mexico to Panama, where some of the rarest and most expensive beans are grown. Roya thrives on coffee tree leaves and it chokes off the source of nutrition for the coffee cherries that encase the beans. When a tree has been afflicted, it will produce fewer cherries and harvested beans are sapped of flavor.
Coffee production in Central America is expected to shrink 16% this year. Scientists and farmers believe Roya will be an even larger threat next year as the condition of infected trees worsens and the fungus spreads to new areas.
The U.S. Agency for International Development has announced a $5 million partnership with Texas A & M University’s World Coffee Research center to try and solve this fungus problem. Our government is mainly concerned about the economic security of the small coffee farms abroad. If these farmers lose their jobs, it will increase hunger and poverty in the region and may increase violence and drug trafficking.
Major U.S. coffee companies have been able to make up for the shortfall by purchasing beans from Columbia and Brazil. Small coffee companies have found it increasingly difficult to source specialized coffee beans and will have to either raise prices or use blends that are easier to find.
