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Well, newcomers to this area may be suitable for collecting standard coffee beans. But most of the profits he gets from his seven-hectare farm, located in the foothills of the Andes, are guaranteed with products for the specialized market; now the beans used to make the four dollar lat in New York represent a small portion of the harvest.
Without pickers, professionals who can harvest five times faster, the fruit of the coffee tree, which externally resembles a cherry, is overripe and falls from the trees.
“Of course, that coffee can be sold, but as soon as the fruit hits the ground, it becomes contaminated,” said Roy, who hopes to cover the costs this season. “I don’t sell such beans in any way as a specialty product.”
Skilled labor shortages are the latest blow to pandemics for producers like A. Rojas. Many cafes and restaurants are still closed, so Starbucks sells much less latte. Mild arabica futures lost 27 percent this year, closing the gap with a much more bitter robust. People are increasingly inclined to drink coffee at home, and more often than usual, prepared or instant coffee.
Due to labor shortages, alarm bells are also ringing in Central America, where the harvest is primarily harvested by migrants. Weaker currencies have somehow mitigated the blow to producers in the region, but the value of the Brazilian real has dropped further, making the world’s largest coffee producer even more competitive. Furthermore, a more mechanized Brazilian industry is less affected by labor interruptions.
And while the local workforce has allowed smallholders to survive through regional quarantines and maintain production volumes, there are signs of concern behind the supposed success.
When the main coffee bean producers in Colombia begin the main harvest stage in September, they will hardly be saved with the help offered by friends and neighbors as grain collectors. Simply doing all the work for the locals may not be enough.
The industry hopes that the restrictions will be eased soon and that temporary workers can return. But the influx of larger outlets increases the risk of spreading the disease in areas that have handled the virus much better than in large cities.
“I am very concerned about the impact on yields in the second half of the year,” said Oscar Gutiérrez, who heads the Colombian Dignidad Agrícola movement, which actively advocates for better prices for producers. – Although we are easing the restrictions, we still do not know when the peak of this virus will reach Colombia. This situation is incredibly difficult for farmers. “
Costa Rica, like Colombia, intends to use the locals who have lost their jobs to collect mainly beans of the highest quality. Generally, coffee growers in those countries are asking Nicaraguan voters for help, but both countries have recently been engulfed in angry comments over the anti-pollution measures. Costa Rica has been widely criticized by Nicaragua for its too mild response to the coronavirus.
Nicaragua’s workforce is unlikely to have this season due to concerns about a second wave of the virus, said Xinia Chaves, director of the Costa Rican Coffee Institute, which is helping to develop protocols for social isolation and virus tracking.
Although the abundant harvest in the heavy-duty coffee industry in Brazil suggests that supply will be high, exports from Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Honduras have decreased due to decreased demand and gaps in the chain. Logistics.
Honduras, the largest exporter in Central America, hires workers from Guatemala and Nicaragua to harvest. Harvest in some areas begins in September. With borders closed, Enrique Salazar, CEO of Bicafe, a specialized exporter of products, fears that the industry cannot find enough people. It is also concerned that roasters and importers may not be able to come to the site to inspect beans as usual.
In Ethiopia, Africa’s largest producer, exports of specialty products have increased this year. Farmers are currently more affected by the disruption caused by COVID-19 than by the labor shortage, which may be even more pronounced in the future, according to the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority.
© PA / Scanpix
Due to the threat of rapid spread of COVID-19 from harvest, the possibility of supply disruptions is a major concern for the marketing, processing and sales sectors. Olam International Ltd., one of the world’s largest coffee merchants, has established a fund to help some of its suppliers overcome the crisis.
“It is very important for us to maintain supply chains so that the crop can be harvested as quickly as possible without spreading the virus,” said Vivek Verma, head of the Olam coffee business, from Singapore. – Coffee prices are already so low that many farming communities are stumbling to their knees. And that’s not enough: because of COVID-19, everyone is very scared about their health. “
Producers like Ruber Bustos are forced to focus on a standard market with much lower profits, precisely because of the weakening demand for exotic coffee beans from the pandemic.
Last year, specialty coffee accounted for about 30 percent. R. Busts harvest. In the first half of this year, he didn’t cultivate it at all. The farmer expects cafes to gradually open and restrictions on seasonal workers to ease in the second half, but at the same time he acknowledges the risks of an outbreak and does not rule out the possibility that authorities may have to close the regions again.
“Growing exotic coffee requires a lot of skilled work,” he said. “And there is a great shortage of that labor.”
Declining demand for specialty coffee could have a long-term impact on farms, says Kim Elena Jonescu, lead specialist for sustainable development for the Specialty Coffee Association.
“As a result, there are no opportunities to reinvest profits, coffee trees become weaker and more resistant to disease and, ultimately, less productive,” he says. “One obstacle is reaching another, and eventually it becomes a problem, too big to be solved at the farm level.”
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