Nicaraguan coffee ripe but no one harvests climate change pressure motivates local workers to choose to emigrate

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The coffee harvest season in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, began in January, but many farms have no workers to harvest it. A Nicaraguan grower said: "the fruit is ripe, but most of it can only fall on the land." Picking coffee in Nicaragua has not made any money in recent years, and now no worker is willing to do this job. "

Coffee needs a large number of manual labourers during the harvest. Mature coffee fruits are generally picked by hand and then transported manually. During the coffee harvest season, workers will harvest the coffee fruit several times according to the maturity of the coffee fruit, then carry the harvested coffee fruit across the rugged mountain road and finally send it to the processing plant. Workers who work so hard can only earn $5 or $6 a day.

Aura Lila Sevilla Kuan, former president of the Nicaraguan Coffee Association, said: "the economy of the northern part of the country depends on coffee cultivation." The droughts of 2016 and 2017 weakened Nicaragua's coffee harvest, which was lower than the investment of growers, and they became in debt. Two hurricanes hit Central America at the end of 2020, and growers had to hire fewer harvesters to make ends meet.

In recent years, increased coffee production in other countries has depressed the price of most coffee on the market, while droughts and storms have forced coffee growers and harvesters in Central America to make the choice of emigration. Harvest workers who are unemployed in Nicaragua most often emigrate to nearby Costa Rica, while harvest workers in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala are more likely to go north.

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