What does climate change have to do with your favourite cup of coffee?
There are some small pleasure we all enjoy in life, one being good coffee! So what’s the future for great quality coffee in future? “Make no mistake,” former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz told Time magazine last year, “climate change is going to play a bigger role in affecting the quality and integrity of coffee.”
Rising temperatures will bring drought, increase the range of diseases and kill large swaths of the insects that pollinate coffee plants. About half of the land around the world currently used to produce high-quality coffee could be unproductive by 2050, according to a recent study in the journal Climatic Change.
Costa Rica farmers say climate change has already made it difficult to predict harvest conditions. Fifteen years ago the average coffee farm in Costa Rica produced about 14.5 bags of coffee per acre. Today that number is down to fewer than 10 bags per acre.
Which countries are seeing changing coffee quality?
- Kenya. Higher temperatures will negatively impact the incidence and spread of pests and diseases and may adversely affect the ‘Kenya cup’ that the country is famous for.
- Brazil. Rising temperatures suggest coffee production will become viable in areas formerly considered too prone to frost.
- Colombia. Production costs are likely to increase due to new climatic conditions favouring the proliferation of insects, plagues and pathogens.
- Costa Rica. Farmers are also facing threats from climate change but rising temperatures may also expand the high-altitude regions where quality coffee is grown, possibly to as high as 2,000 meters.
- India. Reduced rainfall in some areas is dramatically changing the ecosystem and growing conditions, whereas higher temperatures are favouring the spread of pests
- Mexico. Coffee production is at risk from climate change and the proliferation of pests. Coffee at all altitudes is now at risk.
- Peru. Crops appear to start earlier and farmers are reporting that high-altitude coffee trees are maturing at times more typical of their low-land counterparts.
- Uganda. More frequent floods and landslides are already a concern whereas rainfall distribution has become more erratic.
Coffee and the future
In areas that are heating up, some farmers are planting large trees to shade the smaller coffee plants underneath them. Coffee farmers are changing their practices in adapting to climate change, by looking to other areas where they could produce coffee as another strategy.
Us coffee lovers eventually will feel the impact on the quality of our coffee in the near future. Prices will go up, quality will go down, and premium beans will be harder to find. But for now go to our page and choose from some of our favourite coffee producers.
Sources:
- https://time.com/5318245/coffee-industry-climate-change/
- https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/coffee-climate-change/
