NPR Coffee Rust Story

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doubleOsoul
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Joined: 16 years ago

#1: Post by doubleOsoul »

NPR (NorCal KQED) just finished a piece a few minutes ago on coffee rust in Central America that's worthy of a listen.
http://www.kqed.org/radio/listen/

gophish
Posts: 255
Joined: 11 years ago

#2: Post by gophish »

I heard this on my way to work this morning. Pretty interesting, the story makes it sound as if certain regions are completely wiped out. Yet, I've recently ordered coffee from those regions at no higher price than any other unaffected countries. So, certainly there is more to it than the story let on and I need to do some more reading, but I'll be curious to see if we (the end consumer) end up seeing the direct effects of the rust.
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TomC
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#3: Post by TomC replying to gophish »


I'm not an expert in green importing, so take it with a grain of salt, but price isn't a marker to compare in a situation like this. The farmers can't just increase their price to compensate for their severely lower yield to make up the difference. The coffee quality is far, far lower than it otherwise would be, due to the stress the crop is under. Coffee that normally flourishes and grows robustly and healthy, now needs to be sprayed every 4 weeks or more, just to keep a harvestable crop. Quality has taken a hit nearly across the board. Heralded farms that we know and love have still managed to get a crop to market, but it's not nearly as good as it has been in years past. These farms can't get the same high price for a sub-par coffee. With roya, everyone loses.
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