Huge disease outbreak may drive up prices of high-quality coffee
Coffee drinkers, take note: A disease outbreak of epidemic proportions has hit coffee plants in Central America and is threatening to destroy half the coffee bean crop and drive up prices, according to Wired .
"It's the better-quality coffees that are going to get more expensive and harder to come by," Peter Giuliano of the Specialty Coffee Association of America told Wired. "People will be reminded that coffee is special and delicate."
The disease, called coffee rust, afflicts more than half of the growing areas in a belt from Guatemala through Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. Those are the areas that specialize in Arabica beans - the ones used in high-quality coffees. Robusta varieties (depicted in the photo below) that are mixed with Arabicas in low-cost coffees resist the disease but don't taste as good.
Coffee rust leaves coffee plants barren and their fruits unripened and farmers are already saying many plants have turned into twigs.
Last year, regional production fell by 15%, but crop losses could hit 50% for the next harvest season, which begins in October.
It takes nine months to incubate the beans and the plants are just now flowering, so it could take up to a year for consumers to feel the impact.
The disease is caused by a leaf-blighting fungus and may be exacerbated by growing practices and climate change, Wired reports. The fungus requires warm, humid air to thrive, and since the mid-20th century, temperatures in Central America and northern South America have increased. So have extreme rainfall events, climate researchers say.
Apparently, rust outbreaks were responsible for turning the British on to tea: The British began drinking it after the disease destroyed coffee plantations in Sri Lanka in the 19th century.
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