
FROM THE EDITOR
Kelly Stewart
THE NOVEL ON my bedside table is about
a man named Harvey who believes that he can control the weather. He travels
around the globe to save different regions from severe atmospheric events.
I have been fascinated by the weather for as long as I can remember.
Maybe it’s because my grandfather was a government meteorologist
who taught me the names of weather phenomena just about as soon as I
started talking. He got a kick out of me telling strangers about cirrus,
stratus and cumulus clouds floating overhead. Today, I’m still
drawn in by climate-related stories from around the globe. The force
of the tropical storms that hurtle across the sea. Unrelenting rain.
Or no rain at all, for months at a time.
In the coffee world, where weather plays a huge role in determining
production levels, I have no doubt that Harvey’s talents would
be in high demand.
In Roast’s November/December 2009 issue, we detailed production
statistics for coffee grown around the world and included a section on
climate change—a hotly debated topic, both inside and outside the
coffee industry. Some readers have said that our climate change report
was overly gloomy. Yet no matter what your thoughts about climate change
and whether it will impact future coffee production, it’s clear
that weather is an unpredictable variable. In the coffee industry, we
are at its mercy. (Harvey, where are you when we need you?) As we all
know, arabica plants are fussy about weather—not too hot or cold,
not too wet or dry. If Mother Nature cooperates, the coffee trees flower
and produce an abundance of cherries. But if there’s a drought
or a deluge of rain, the plants suffer the consequences.
At Costa Rica’s Sintercafé conference in November, I sat
in on a discussion about the wet La Niña weather conditions that
decimated the Colombian crop last year. Carlos Alberto González,
a director of the Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia, and Ramón
Vargas, a Colombian coffee exporter, outlined the circumstances that
led to a shortage of Colombian coffee. During nearly every month of 2008,
they reported, coffee regions suffered from heavy rain. The excess moisture
stunted flowering. At the same time, producers were replacing aging crops
with new coffee plants. Topping it off, fertilizer prices soared. Many
producers decided to forego application to reduce their costs.
Colombia’s production dropped by about 30 percent for the season,
and many roasters were unable to secure the coffee they’d ordered.
Colombian green coffee, which has historically sold for a price difference
of just pennies per pound above the New York “C” market,
soared to a price differential of nearly 100 cents per pound over the
New York “C” market in May 2009.
The rain persisted in early 2009. Though the additional monthly
rainfall might not seem like much—the country’s largest coffee-producing
area, Antioquia, received three-quarters of an inch more rain than normal
last January—the continued pattern of high rainfall can affect
coffee bean development. The good news is that, by 2014, more than 90
percent of Colombia’s coffee plantations will benefit from the
government-supported tree renovation program. The country is on track
to increase its coffee production in the coming years. But the perfect
storm that happened last year highlights how vulnerable the industry
can be to the whims of the weather.
We can’t count on Harvey to protect coffee-growing regions from
unusual weather patterns, so it makes sense to educate ourselves about
any changes that might be coming and try to be ready to adapt if we need
to.
Cheers,
Kelly

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