STiR coffee and tea magazine

Volume 4, Number 2

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STiR tea & coffee industry international 41 LORING.COM DIsCOveR why the wORLD's best ROast MasteRs aRe ChOOsING LORING. » Produce a brighter, cleaner cup with the Flavor-Lock Roast Process™ Technology » Reduce fuel costs by up to 80% compared to conventional roasters » Achieve true consistency with agile digital controls and repeatable roast profiles » Conserve space with the smallest footprint in the industry Explore the Smarter Way to Roast. Visit LORING.COM NEW! Destoners loring.com/destoners STiR magazine ad_March.indd 1 2/24/15 6:27 PM "During 2014, the rust affected 65% to 70% of our total cultivated area," said Medina. That's between 200,000 and 213,000 infected hectares, given that roughly 305,000 hectares — about 2.8% of Guatemala's land area — is planted with coffee. "Even though it was severe, we can say that most of it was between levels two and three on a scale of one to four — while in 2013, it was between levels three and four," Medina explained in a lengthy interview. "Our goal is to maintain rust between levels one and two, which is what we call the preventive state of rust, and control it without any economic damage to coffee production." Yet Julio Ligorría, Guatemala's am- bassador to the United States, said farm- ers and exporters throughout Central America have little choice but to get used to the disease. "Roya in Guatemala is here to stay, and the coffee growers need to learn to live with it and prevent it yearly by ap- plying fungicides in a timely manner," Ligorría said. "Given that most coffee producers are micro- and small-sized, it is more difficult to control and make sure all of them do their best effort. That is why in some cases Anacafé recommends rust-resistant varieties." Medina says Anacafé has purchased 30,000 liters of fungicide in each of the past two years — at a cost of $2.5 mil- lion annually — in order to give produc- ers the lowest prices possible. That was enough to cover 80,000 hectares, which is only one-third of the acreage now af- fected by coffee rust. In total, he said the organization has spent about $15 million to control roya. Anacafé, a nonprofit organization, has 125,000 members and assesses a 1% tax on the FOB price of all coffee exported from Guatemala — an arrangement that generates $6 million to $10 million a year. In return, it offers its members promotion and technical assistance, as well as a so- phisticated soil and leaf analysis lab. Medina, whose family has been in the coffee business since 1883, has headed Anacafé since mid-November. Before that, he was vice president for two years, and was on Anacafé's board of directors for two years before that. "The way I see it, people need access to medicine, health, and education, which in these times have become luxuries," Coffee seedlings at the Finca Filadelfia nursery just outside Antigua.

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