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World Coffee Information Latin American caffeine climate warming is facing decline

Published: 2026-02-22 Author: World Gafei

Last Updated: 2026/02/22, Organic coffee in Latin America is under threat due to the spread of rust leaf disease at higher altitudes due to global warming, Taiwan's United News Network reported recently. For nearly six years, a fungus commonly known as "coffee rust" has killed a large number of coffee trees in Central America, so many that scientists believe that coffee harvests in the region could be reduced by as much as 40%. The culprit is what scientists say

According to a recent report by Taiwan's United News Network, the warming climate has caused the spread of rust leaf disease to higher altitudes, threatening organic coffee in Latin America.

For nearly six years, a fungus commonly known as "coffee rust" has killed a large number of coffee trees in Central America, so many that scientists believe that coffee harvests in the region could be reduced by as much as 40%. The culprit is a phenomenon that scientists call "climate change", in which weather patterns change dramatically every year. The increase in rainfall in recent years means more coffee rust fungi, which cover coffee leaves, block sunlight, prevent photosynthesis, and eventually the coffee trees fall down and die.

This issue has attracted the attention of Central American governments, who believe that the pessimistic future of the coffee industry is a threat to the national economy. At the same time, some coffee producers have also received help from development organizations, which worry that if too many coffee farmers lose their jobs, it could lead to mass poverty and trigger other problems, such as the drug trade.

Rust leaf disease used to occur at most 3000 feet above sea level in Guatemala, but now there are signs of rust leaf disease at 6000 feet, said Reborowski, president of the country's coffee association.

The world's worst outbreak of rust leaf disease in 30 years has shrunk coffee production. Peru, the world's largest exporter of organic coffee, and Mexico, the second, have reduced their incomes or even lost their jobs.

Coffee farmers face a dilemma, can use chemical pesticides to deal with, but will lose organic certification, and organic products bring 10% premium; if you let nature take its course, you can keep the certification, but watch the coffee trees die.

Luis Fernando Samper, a coffee dealer at Colombia's National Coffee Farmers Association, is confident that coffee rust will be crushed by the replacement of sick coffee trees within the next decade. However, the challenges of such a fickle crop growing in a changeable climate will only increase.

Source: China Organic Agriculture Network