By K K Aiyamma
Reuters is reporting that;
Many analysts now expect a global bean deficit for the first time in five years.
Brazil is going through a severe drought, which has already pushed the prices high. Currently it is trading at a 3 year high, at over $2.25 per pound. The South American country is the world biggest producer.
But now the second best is also taking a beating. Over half of Central America’s coffee crops have been affected by the disease – Roya.
“The fungus hit the coffee trees hard. It went around the sides of the mountains and ate everything,” Portillo told Reuters while standing on his farm in the Jayaque Mountains, 38 miles west of San Salvador.
It requires reseeding and to be replaced with rust free variety of crop. But many plantation have not done that yet.
“To my surprise … farmers did not renovate plantations through reseeding with rust-resistant varieties anywhere near the volumes they need to or we thought they might start out with,” said Tim Schilling, executive director for Texas-based World Coffee Research.
Colombia, the 3rd largest producer in the world, is also under attack from borer-beetle disease.
Every day it’s getting worse, with more broca in the harvest,” Echeverria said yesterday by telephone from his farm. “It’s all over the province and the main coffee region, with infestation rates up to 12 percent.
