ICO predicts loss of 2.5 million bags of coffee in 2012/13

The International Coffee Organization (ICO) on Friday estimated loss of 2.5 million bags of coffee of world production in 2012/13 season due to rust, a fungal disease that attacks the leaves of coffee trees. The losses could rise to about 4 million bags in crop year 2013/14, the organization added.
Outbreaks of aggressive rust reached the major producing nations of Central America and Mexico, countries accounting for over a fifth of the world's largest coffee. "The big impact is not the year in which the disease is detected, but the following year," said Mauricio Galindo, chief operating officer of ICO.
Rust is well known due to orange spores that appear at the bottom of infected leaves. The leaves eventually turn black and fall off, killing or severely weakening the plant.
The organization said it had not yet included these losses in their estimates, but will do it in the next monthly update.
In its latest official forecast, the organization has set the world production of 2012/13 at 144.4 million bags. World consumption in 2012 was estimated at 142.2 million bags.
Mauricio Galindo said could take up to 10 years to combat the disease since new plants that will be planted. A coffee takes three to five years to produce its first full crop of grains, which makes slow a program of replanting.
Earlier this week, Ricardo Villanueva, president of the advisory council to the private sector ICO and former president of the Association of Producers of Guatemala (Anacafe), estimated that the production 2013/14 could be reduced between 5 and 7 million bags due to rust.
Source: Notícias R7