What is coffee rust?
The Coffee Rust is an obligate parasitic fungus, which means it is a microorganism that must take energy and nutrients from a specific live host (coffee) and reproduces differently than either plants or animals.
What does it do?
A coffee plant can lose a substantial amount of foliage when attacked by coffee rust. When a coffee plant does not have the optimal amount of leaf area, it does not have the ability to accumulate adequate energy via photosynthesis and store up the appropriate resources for fruit production.
Impact of BPR?
The pricing impact is already being felt in the futures market but let’s get down to the reality, farmers are going be have less income in certain areas that are prone to this decease like Central America – Nicaragua and Costa Rica are our biggest concerns for these are some of our favorite flavor profiles. Chemicals will likely be used to control the fungus meaning less organic coffees and even higher prices for the ones that do make it to market. Since a coffee tree takes 3-5 years to grow to maturity and produce fruit, the timescale for recovery will be very long.