Climate threatens coffee production

Although coffee is among the favourite drinks of consumers and is one of the most traded commodities in the world, surpassed only by oil, several researchers suggest that climate change may affect their production.
If you check this, the Brazil will certainly be one of the most affected, since they are the largest producer and exporter of coffee in the world, accounting for a quarter of world production, area where coffee consumption is growing exponentially.
According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, the forecasts for 2013 point to a crop in this country of 47.8 million bags of 60kg, amount to more than 2 million tons.
The most pessimistic predictions relate specifically to the production of Arabica beans by nature more sensitive and vulnerable to high temperatures. Representing 73% of the grain harvested in Brazil, it is not insignificant that the Arabica is the greatest threat facing. The ideal temperature for this type of coffee fluctuates between 18ºC and 22ºC. In this sense, a temperature rise, no matter how small, it would, by itself, enough to cause major losses in the volume of coffee produced.
In order to prevent these forecasts materialize, researchers carry out simulations and seek to discover formulas necessary to preserve the culture, even in hostile conditions.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that temperatures on the planet can rise from 1.8ºC to 4ºC by the end of the century. To confirm this grim prediction, the coffee industry may have serious difficulties in the coming decades.
To cope with the most pessimistic forecasts and extreme, several solutions have been suggested. Experts recommend the rise in altitude to avoid impact and exposure to high temperatures. Higher regions have been gaining progressively growing areas, the situation is not unconnected with the fact that warming have helped to reduce the formation of frost.
With the trend for the plantations established in areas above 650 meters, with milder temperatures, coffee will benefit thus its quality.
Assumed as a matter of central preponderance for the coffee industry, climate change led to the creation in 2010 of the International Coffee & Climate Initiative which aims to support coffee farmers in adapting or reacting to the harmful impacts of these factors through the development of a number of active practical for the purpose. In this regard it should be noted that the project in question was put in place in four countries in nuclear coffee: Brazil, Guatemala, Tanzania and Vietnam.
Source: Hostel Vending Portugal