Central America and Mexico to recover coffee production
Date:07-07-2014
After two years of losses generated by the coffee rust, Mexico and Central America are predicted to increase coffee production to a total of 16.2 million bags in 2014/15, according to a report from US Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Central American and Mexican production account for a fifth of the world's coffee production.
Honduras, the biggest coffee producer in this region, is likely to have a production of 5 million bags, with an increase of 8.7% compared to last year. Nearly 25% (71,000 hectares) of the planted area was affected by rust. However, because of more resistant varieties have been introduced in Honduras in the last two decades, the damage caused by rust wasn't that big.
Marex Spectrom, a commodity brokerage based in London, worries that there will be an output reduction of 3.4 million bags in the following crop season, with greater losses in Guatemala and El Salvador. The brokerage mentioned that the El Niño phenomena will come back to this region with the same force which affected the region in 1997. "It is unlikely that Central American stays free of rust in 2014/2015", said the brokerage.
According to estimates from the Central American Organization of Coffee Exporters, the losses caused by rust reached to 20% of the production in 2012/2013. The biggest reductions were registered in Nicaragua, followed by Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama. In the last season, the losses were bigger in Honduras, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. The total financial loss was $ 243 million, accounted by the organization.
In order to fight the coffee rust, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) said that they are cooperating with Texas A&M University in a project, with an estimated cost of $ 5 million. In this project, the Texas University is responsible for developing coffee variety resistant to rust and its afterwards introduction.
"The rust affects jobs, business and safety of millions of people in the Americas. We have to control the epidemics to guarantee that farmers and workers have stable yields, that they don't plant illicit crop or to be forced to migrate because they cannot maintain their families", said USAID administrator, Mark Feierstein.
According to World Coffee Research, in 2010, the rust fungus first appeared in this region on Guatemlas’s Arabica crops.
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