Weather change harms Costa Rica's coffee industry! Production will be reduced in the future

Costa Rica is one of the world's major coffee producers and exporters. Because the country has fertile volcanic soil, mild climate and abundant rainfall, it provides good natural conditions for coffee planting.

However, it is reported that Costa Rica has been suffering from problems such as high temperatures and droughts in recent years, and these problems have affected Costa Rica's coffee growing environment and will cause serious production cuts in Costa Rica.

According to reports, in Desamparados County, San Jos Province in central Costa Rica, which is also the country's main coffee producing area, many coffee plantations here have experienced production reduction problems, with some plantations reducing production by 15%.

A local farmer said that in the first half of this year, the local temperature was significantly higher than before and there was insufficient rainfall, which affected the flowering and fruiting of coffee trees in the new season.

Rainwater is very important to the flowering process of local coffee trees. Costa Rica should have entered the rainy season in April, but there was no rain in the local area from March to April this year. The coffee tree buds could not bloom because they did not get enough water. As a result, the number of coffee fruit picked is lower than in previous years. In addition, the environment where coffee grows is hotter, making coffee trees more sensitive to some fungal diseases. It is expected that coffee production will decrease during the 2024/25 harvest period.

In addition, Costa Rican coffee trees are currently facing large-scale aging problems, and planting new coffee trees also requires water. However, there was only a few days of rain in May this year, but the rainfall was small, so the work of planting new coffee trees was postponed until June. However, this disrupted the normal pace of plantation work and increased management costs. In addition, due to the rising temperature, coffee beans in low and high altitude areas basically mature at the same time, but there is not enough labor force to collect them.

Moreover, about 27,000 coffee growers in Costa Rica are facing these problems. According to the Costa Rican coffee industry report released earlier, coffee production in the 2023/24 quarter was 1.44 million bags (60 kilograms/bag), but by the 2024/25 quarter, coffee production is expected to be 1.18 million bags, a decrease of 18%.

The decrease in production will also lead to a decrease in exports. The report predicts that exports in the 2023/24 quarter will be 972,000 bags (60 kg/bag). However, more than 80% of the coffee produced in Costa Rica is exported. Exports have decreased and foreign exchange earnings have also decreased, which may cause unemployment problems.

However, the Costa Rican government, coffee growers and scientific research structures are currently adopting a variety of responses to mitigate the negative impact of climate change on the coffee industry.

The Costa Rican government has recently launched a "low-carbon coffee plan", which will promote the greening and low-carbon of the relevant environment in the coffee planting and production chain through financial subsidies and preferential loans, reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and water resources, and optimize the management system.

Many research institutions, including the Costa Rican Coffee Institute, are promoting coffee growing methods that are more suitable for local climate conditions and developing drought-resistant coffee varieties to assist the development of the Costa Rican coffee industry.