By Nelson Renteria
SAN SALVADOR, Jan 8 (Reuters) – Even as El Salvador’s coffee
industry continues to grapple with the rapid spread of a deadly
fungal outbreak, the country’s current crop appears to have
dodged a bullet from last month’s volcanic eruption, a top
government minister said on Wednesday.
The Chaparrastique volcano, about 87 miles (140 kilometers)
east of San Salvador, spewed gases and ash last month over a
wide area that is home to about 11 percent of the country’s
total coffee output.
But damage to date is minimal, said Agriculture Minister
Pablo Ochoa.
“The impact isn’t significant,” Ochoa told Reuters, noting
that about 21,000 hectares around the volcano have been impacted
by the fallout from the eruption.
“The favorable part is that a high percentage of the
(current) harvest had already been collected” near the volcano
prior to the eruption, said Ochoa.
He said only about 15 percent has yet to be harvested due to
health risks posed by the ash.
El Salvador, a relatively small Central American producer
but known for its high-quality arabica beans, has been the worst
affected nation in the region by the outbreak of roya, with over
70 percent of coffee plantations infected by the tree-killing
fungus, according to data from agriculture research center
CATIE.
El Salvador, which produced about 1.3 million 60-kilogram
bags during the previous harvest, boasts a total of about
119,000 hectares of coffee farms.
But production during the current 2013/2014 harvest, which
began in October, is expected to shrink by 36 percent compared
to last season due to the spread of roya, according to a
forecast by the country’s national coffee council CSC.
The harvest during the upcoming 2013/2014 season will slip to
843,500 60-kg bags, which would mark one of the lowest yields in
decades.
The coffee season in Central America and Mexico, which
together produce more than one-fifth of the world’s arabica
beans, runs from October through September.
Since October, El Salvador has shipped more than $227
million worth of coffee, down by 50 percent compared to the same
period during the previous 2012/2013 cycle, according to the
country’s central bank.
Low market prices have contributed to lower coffee earnings,
El Salvador’s largest source of export revenue.
DIFFICULT DECISIONS
The rapid spread of roya, also known as coffee leaf rust,
has already bumped up costs for many farmers.
At the Talapo farm near the western town of Sonsonate, in
the foothills of the Santa Ana volcano, about 14 percent of the
farm’s 600 hectares will have to be replanted with
roya-resistant trees.
“We’ve had to make very difficult decisions here,” said
Maria Pacas, one of the family members that owns the farm.
She said the family has had to borrow $56,000 to replant
about 20,000 coffee trees in just one 7-hectare area where roya
had killed off all the trees.
The Talapo farm is located about 37 miles southwest of the
capital, and expects output to shrink by nearly 40 percent in
the current season.
(Writing and additional reporting by David Alire Garcia in
Sonsonate; Editing by Joseph Radford)
