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Are you a coffee lover? Climate change puts your crop at risk

2022-01-27T02:33:58.783Z


Climate change will make it much more difficult to grow Arabica coffee in the coming years, according to a study published on Wednesday.


Climate change will directly impact your cup of coffee 0:43

New York (CNN Business) --

Bad news for coffee lovers: Climate change will make it much more difficult to grow Arabica coffee in the coming years, according to a study published Wednesday in the scientific journal Plos One.

The study examined how coffee growing conditions will change by 2050 based on projections from various global climate models.

The results show that coffee plants will be "drastically" less suitable for cultivation in current coffee-producing regions by 2050 due to the impacts of climate change.

Arabica coffee, which is used by Starbucks and other major coffee sellers, is already a finicky crop that requires specific conditions to thrive.

Currently, the most suitable areas for growing coffee are in Central and South America, particularly Brazil, as well as Central and West Africa and parts of South and Southeast Asia, according to the study by Roman Grüter and others in the Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland.

Over the next 28 years, the projected impacts of climate change in those areas will make them much less friendly to coffee crops, according to the report.

Possible benefits of coffee 0:55

"The main coffee producing countries investigated (Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, Colombia) are all seriously affected by climate change with a strong decrease in suitable areas (...) and an increase in unsuitable areas by 2050", according to the report, which notes that higher temperatures make it difficult to grow coffee.

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The study also looked at how climate change will affect growing conditions for cashews and avocados.

For those items, rising temperatures could create viable new growing environments in some areas, according to the report.

Coffee, however, "proved to be the most vulnerable, with negative climate impacts dominating in all major producing regions," the study found.

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The authors concluded that for all three crops, "adaptation to climate change will be necessary in most major producing regions."

That could include growing varieties that are better suited to the new conditions.

And in the case of coffee, it could also mean switching to Robusta trees, which are hardier but produce beans that are generally considered to be of lower quality than Arabica beans.

"In the worst case, it could also mean farmers would have to switch to a different crop," Grüter told CNN Business, adding that it's "hard to say when and where this will happen."

Some companies are already preparing for the changing conditions.

Starbucks, for example, distributes climate-resilient coffee varieties to farmers and works to protect at-risk forests in important coffee-growing areas, among other initiatives.

Coffee prices skyrocket

Coffee prices have already skyrocketed due to bad weather.

Severe drought and unusual frosts in Brazil, the world's largest supplier of coffee beans, have pushed coffee futures higher.

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US coffee retail prices grew 6.3% last year, below headline inflation.

Major coffee companies, including Starbucks, buy coffee well in advance at fixed prices.

But eventually, price increases will hit consumers.

Less supply will only exacerbate the situation.

Coffee is just one category of food affected by extreme weather.

Droughts, storms and frosts, once rare or unheard of in some areas, are becoming the norm in farming regions around the world, making it difficult for farmers to plan ahead, wreaking havoc on the food supply and driving up prices .

CNN's Matt Egan contributed to this report.

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Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2022-01-27

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