Central America

Representatives of the coffee industry in Central America report that the harvest of Arabica coffee is being hit by an outbreak of rust, according to the Reuters site.
Small producers like Graciela Alvarenga, who has a planted area of less than 1 hectare in the region of El Paraíso, Honduras, near the border with Nicaragua, was so struck that now uses the leaves and twigs of their coffee plants as firewood. "I think it will not produce anything this year," said Graciela Alvarenga. "We almost lost the whole farm."

The Executive Director of the International Coffee Organization (ICO), Robério Silva in an exclusive interview with Coffee Break, said the situation of coffee producers of the five countries he visited in Central America is "distressing and disturbing." Robério visited Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica to check closely the damage caused by the outbreak of rust in coffee. "Come on in the crop and realized what caused the disease, all the foliage is on the ground," said the director of the ICO.

The rust (roya) and other diseases harm in 20% of coffee production in Central America in the new coffee crop year 2012/13, according to estimates by the Central Organization of Coffee Exporters (Orceca).
"About 20% of the Central American coffee, which equates to approximately 4 million quintals (bags of 46 pounds, will be affected by rust and other diseases," said

With the year 2013 begining, two points deserve attention in world coffee production. The first is the sudden and sharp drop in prices, which are pressed by factors different than the scenario indicates fundamental, and the second is the difficulty experienced in coffee plantations of Central America - almost as a whole - due to bad weather, lack of investment and especially the attack of the fungus roya, which causes rust.