Climate change threatens productivity and price of coffee

The coffee grower Masumi Kondo needed blanket to sleep when he began to cultivate the crop in the region of Franca, São Paulo State, in late 1970. As the weather was consistently warmer, he now uses an air conditioner. Not only the farmers react to climate change. High temperatures reduces the area suitable for the plants of wild Arabica variety, the most consumed. From Brazil to Kenya and Ethiopia, farmers are leaving for higher land and employing new technologies to maintain productivity. For the next seven decades, the places where the Arabica plants grow naturally will decrease by at least 50%, according to report released Wednesday by scientists of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in Britain. The current abundance of the product, which limits the prices around the world, can revert as climate change reduces the potential size of harvests in the coming years. "Low prices as the currently are higher risk than climate change in the next three years, '' said Geordie Wilkes, Chief of research at Sucden Financial." Producers in Central America are having prejudice. In the long run, from 10 years ago, climate change will be more important for the market. ''