STiR coffee and tea magazine

14 STiR coffee and tea | 2026 Quarter 2 Summer (Jun/July/Aug) Coffee's True Impact on Deforestation For years, coffee has shared a seat at the table with the world's most notorious deforestation culprits, lumped in alongside beef, palm oil, and soybeans in global environmental discourse. But a sweeping new study published in Nature Food in February 2026 offers the coffee industry a data-backed reason to breathe a little easier, while sharpening the conversation about where the real forest loss is happening. The research, conducted by Chandrakant Singh and U. Martin Persson of Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, introduces the most comprehensive global framework ever developed to track commodity-driven deforestation. Of the 471 million hectares of global tree cover lost between 2001 and 2022, the study found that only 26% (approximately 5.5 million hectares per year) is driven by the expansion of croplands, pastures, and forest plantations for commodity production. This is a substantially lower figure than many earlier estimates suggested. The true heavy hitter? Cattle. Pasture expansion for beef production accounts for roughly 42% of total commodity-driven deforestation. Oil palm and soybeans come in second, accounting for around 16% of deforestation. Forest plantations account for another 14%. And then there is coffee, which accounts for around 1% of global commodity- driven deforestation. It is still a contributor, but a rather small one. The study's most striking revelation is not about coffee at all. It is about the crops rarely discussed. Staple crops, including maize, rice, and cassava, account for approximately 11% of total deforestation, exceeding the combined contribution of cocoa, coffee, and rubber. Yet these commodities remain almost absent from deforestation monitoring frameworks and regulatory initiatives. Most deforestation regulations, such as the EUDR, target cattle, palm oil, soy, cocoa, coffee, rubber, and wood, but do not cover staple crops. Singh and Persson argue that this is a significant blind spot, particularly as global demand for staple foods is expected to grow alongside population increases. The coffee sector has faced genuine and war- ranted scrutiny over deforestation in recent years, and the study does not suggest the industry has no work to do. Coffee cultivation remains geographically linked to some of the world's most biodiverse and forest-rich regions. But the data provide important context: at a global scale, coffee is responsible for an extraordinarily small share of agricultural forest loss. By Bhavi Patel A landmark study puts coffee's environmental footprint in perspective. Photo credit: Samira Thapa Fusarium in China's Coffee Belt In November 2024, researchers examining Coffea arabica orchards in Menglian, in China's Yunnan province, found something deeply alarming: fruit rot affecting 15% of surveyed trees. Berries were prematurely ripening, turning red, then brown, Alarm bells ring as China reports Yunnan's first coffee fungal outbreak. Photo credit: Journal of Fungi then blackening, shriveling, and cracking on the branch. Published in the Journal of Fungi in March 2026, the subsequent investigation identified the culprit as Fusarium coffeibaccae, marking the first recorded incidence of this pathogen on Chinese soil. For an industry still consolidating its regional identity, the timing could scarcely be worse. Fusarium is among the most destructive fungal genera on earth. It affects plant systems — roots, stems, flowers, and fruit — and has devastated agri- cultural economies worldwide. In coffee specifically, the genus has carved a long and damaging record. The research underlines a critical and underappreciated transmission dy- namic: the coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei), a pest already notorious for economic damage, acts as a vector for Fusarium and other fungal patho- gens. Boring into cherries, it creates entry points for infection, triggering internal decay and external canker formation. This insect-fungus partnership exemplifies how pests are evolving, not in isolation, but in complex, mutu- ally reinforcing relationships that make containment exponentially harder. Climate pressures are widening the geographic range of both pests and pathogens, meaning regions previously considered safe are now increasingly exposed. Fruit rot caused by Fusarium does not merely reduce yield; it degrades quality, suppresses tree growth, and in persistent cases can kill plants outright. The research team notes that before this study, no baseline data existed for F. coffeibaccae in China, leaving growers effectively blind to its behavior and spread. By Bhavi Patel Coffee Report

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