Deer now roam and weeds flourish on deserted farmland in El Salvador where Julio Portillo used to grow arabica coffee beans until a devastating leaf rust fungus forced him to abandon coffee this year for the first time in more than two decades.
Even when he struggled through low prices or bad weather in the past, the farmer who belongs to the Chahuite Cooperative near the capital San Salvador has always dedicated a portion of his crop to arabica.
But this year, facing a third season of battling the worst outbreak of the disease known as roya in the region’s history, he did not replant trees or treat those that had survived.
A prolonged decline in prices to seven-year lows close to €80 per 500g late last year has depleted farmers’ cash reserves, leaving them with little to invest in expensive new rust-resistant seedlings and little appetite for risk.
Just over half of Central America’s coffee crops have been affected by the fungus.
“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, 61km west of San Salvador.
Future coffee prices have recovered this year, nearly doubling to more than €1.55 per 450g as drought threatens crops in top-grower Brazil, but many farmers prefer lower-risk crops.
The fungus went around the sides of the mountains and ate everything
Half the Chahuite Cooperative’s members have switched to other crops such as tomatoes and chilli or left farming altogether, Portillo said.
In the season that ended in September, his cooperative, which has just under 121.41 hectares of land, produced just 153 60kg bags of arabica beans, down from its usual 4,000 bags.
Many analysts now expect a global bean deficit for the first time in five years.
It takes roughly three to five years for a seedling to become a productive tree. Rust-resistant seedlings cost between €0.60 and €1 each, far higher than the €0.30 for conventional ones, Schilling said. This prevents many small- to-medium-sized farmers from replacing rust-damaged trees.
Some premium roasters have already looked elsewhere for beans as supplies from Central America and Mexico dropped to 19 per cent of the world’s arabica production in 2013-2014. Many rely on the region’s unique high-quality beans which give espressos and lattes a smoother flavour, and they worry about long-term availability.
“We’re seeing another challenging harvest for coffee farmers in Central America,” said Lindsey Bolger, vice-president of coffee sourcing and excellence for Keurig Green Mountain. The company bought around 1.9 million 60kg bags of coffee across the globe in 2013.
Still, it has so far been insufficient to woo Portillo and his fellow farmers back. Where they once dried beans in the sun, the cooperative has built three greenhouses for tomatoes and chillies.