Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/491377
42 STiR tea & coffee industry international / Issue 2, 2015 (April/May) Medina told us. "But they still need to eat. So they have two options: leave the country and go to the U.S., or stay here and maybe become part of the crime scene." Global exports decline Guatemala ranks eighth in worldwide coffee exports — just behind Peru and just ahead of Mexico — and accounts for about 3.5% of the total, according to Anacafe. The largest exporters are Brazil (26.7% of total exports), followed by Vietnam, Colombia, Indonesia, and India. Among Central American countries, Guatemala ranks second after Honduras (5%), but it's still far ahead of Nicaragua (1.5%) and Costa Rica (1.3%). Guatemala's area planted with coffee has increased by 10.5% in the last eight years, from 276,000 hectares in 2006 to 305,000 as of September 2014. Meanwhile, the num- ber of producers has jumped by 35% during the same period, from 90,000 in 2006 to about 125,000 today. In the first 10 months of 2014, coffee exports generated $628.5 million — sur- passed among all agricultural products only by sugar ($777.1 million), according to the Bank of Guatemala. That put coffee ahead of bananas ($550.9 million), fresh fruit ($189.5 million), and cardamom ($170.9 million). Calculated another way, during the 2013-14 growing season, exports came to 4.08 million quintales ($536,000), down from 4.8 million quintales the previous season. Medina said the production of 4.8 million quintales requires 73 million labor-days, or roughly half a million jobs. When the crop shrunk from 4.8 million to 4.08 million quintales, the industry lost 10.3 million labor-days, or about 70,000 jobs. That, he said, translates into $120 mil- lion that wasn't paid in wages. "Not only were those days not used, it means that money did not circulate in rural areas. This is hurting not only people who work directly in coffee, but those who indirectly live from the indus- try as well," he said, noting that coffee is Guatemala's biggest employer, providing jobs for 1.1 million people or 18% of the country's active working population. Yet coffee rust threatens the industry's future. The fungus has been around for years but only recently has become more aggressive, likely due to changing patterns of rainfall and higher temperatures. Roya thrives in hotter weather which has led to its spread to higher altitudes where coffee is grown. It's already caused more than $1 Above, farm hands at the 140-hectare Finca El Injerto display seedlings. Right, Gabino López Domingo applies fertilizer. Below, worms help compost the rich soil. Leonardo Samayoa, 67, picks coffee beans on the side of a steep mountain overlooking Canton La Mora, on the outskirts of La Libertad, in the department of Huehuetenango. Photos by Larry Luxner