Climate change is a global issue that is creating terrible repercussions for many things, one of which is the growth and production of coffee. Espresso @ Home could not even start to imagine a world without coffee! One of the world’s largest exports of coffee is Central America and due to climate change, temperatures are rising. This makes it increasingly hard to grow arabica coffee beans as they are grown in higher altitudes as the cooler temperatures slow down the growth rate of the coffee plant. Thanks to this, the plant focuses more on reproduction of coffee beans than growth. This causes an increase in the speed in which these coffee beans grow, with climate change these temperatures are much more unpredictable so coffee plants are not achieving maximum production levels. Read on below for more information on saving coffee from climate change.
Why is Coffee Vulnerable?
Industry groups such as Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Counter Culture Coffee and the Speciality Coffee Association of America are all researching ways on how to help sustain coffee farmers through climate change. Whilst there are a total of 124 coffee species available in the world, only arabica and robusta coffee beans are grown commercially on mass. Meaning around 60% of wild coffee species are at risk from extinction due to the altering of temperatures from climate change. As rains are becoming more unpredictable as well, the key factors of water and temperature are becoming increasingly inconsistent, meaning many coffee plantations may spoil or not make it through the year!
Effect on Disease
Climate change has also been suspected to have caused the spread of coffee pests and diseases. One of the key diseases being coffee rust, this is a fungus-like disease which causes yellow spots to form on a coffee plant and these cause the plant and the surrounding area to wither and stop producing beans. It is particularly bad in areas of Central America and especially with arabica beans, this is even more of a problem due to these coffee beans being one of the a major sources of coffee in the world, robusta being the other.
What Does the Future of Coffee Look Like?
Although researchers are spending millions on finding out ways to prevent or at least deal with the effects on coffee of climate change, this may not be able to help all coffee farmers and growers. Some of these farmers are more inexperienced or set in a certain way in their techniques for producing coffee beans, they may struggle to adapt to new techniques being taught in the industry and so are at risk of their farms disappearing.
The message that we are trying to convey around this subject is that it will have to be a cooperative effort from everyone in the coffee industry in order to battle the effects of climate change on growing coffee beans. These include specialist farms that are created specifically to grow wild coffee beans of different species so that they do not cease to exist. A boost in arabica and robusta beans production is also a must as if we commit our efforts to sustaining some level of consistency, then we will able to continue to have our favourite drink in the morning!
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