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Guatemala Declares National Coffee Emergency
By SONIA PEREZ 02/08/13 08:57 PM   ET EST

GUATEMALA CITY -- Guatemala's president declared a national
  emergency Friday over the spread of coffee rust, saying the fungus that has hit
  other Central American countries is affecting 70 percent of this nation's
  crop.

President Otto Molina Perez ordered the release of more than $14
  million to aid coffee growers. He said the funds would help 60,000 small
farmers  buy pesticides and also finance instruction to teach them how to
prevent the  disease and stop it from spreading.

"If we don't take the  needed  measures, in 2013-2014 our production could drop by 40 percent," Molina  said in  making his country the third in the region to decree emergencies in  recent  weeks.

Coffee rust, which can kill plants by withering their  leaves, also  is affecting plantations in El Salvador, Honduras, Panama and  Costa Rica.  Mexico's agriculture authorities said the fungus has been detected  there but so  far has not damaged plants.

Molina said the pesticides will  start being  applied to coffee plants in April and two more applications will be  needed  during the year.
Nils Leporowsky, president of the National  Coffee  Association of Guatemala, or Anacafe, said coffee is grown in 206 of the   country's 333 municipalities.

"We have planted 667,000 acres (270,000   hectares) of coffee and of that 477,000 acres (193,000 hectares) have rust,   affecting 70 percent of the total," he added.
Leporowsky said coffee   growing generates 500,000 direct jobs as well as 700,000 additional jobs in   related businesses each year.

"We have lost 100,000 direct jobs already   and that will affect millions of people," he said.
Experts say the  fungus  has been present in Central American since the 1970s but production  hadn't  previously been affected so severely as what is feared this  year.

Otto  Cabrera, an adviser with Anacafe, said coffee rust arrived in  Guatemala in the  1980s.
"The fungus directly affects coffee leaves,  initially with yellow  spots that later turn orange and reaches around the  foliage of coffee, then  makes the leaves fall," he said. "The plant loses its  foliage. It's not able to  breathe, so it ceases producing and it eventually  dies."

Cabrera said  climate change has brought a rise in average  temperatures of about 2 degrees  Celsius in Central American areas where the  fungus was present, encouraging its  growth and increasing the threat of severe  damage.

Honduras and Costa  Rica declared national emergencies over  coffee rust last month. In Panama, the  sixth largest producer of coffee in the  region, the fungus has affected about 60  percent of the crop this year,
according to industry estimates.

Carlos  Fuentes, spokesman for the  association of coffee producers in Panama's Chiriqui  province, which borders
Costa Rica, said coffee yields per acre have fallen 45  percent. Chiriqui is the  largest coffee producer in Panama.

"Of the 8,650  acres (3,500 hectares)  we planted, more than half have been affected," Fuentes  said, adding that he  wants his country to also declare a state of  emergency.

In El Salvador,  the Salvadoran Coffee Council said the impact  of coffee rust is the worst in 30
years. The council estimates the fungus has  affected 100 percent of the  country's coffee plants.

Honduras also  declared a national emergency in  January seeking to curb the fungus and save its  coffee, which is its main  export, with about $1.4 billion in sales in  2012.

"Until now, we  estimate that about 10 percent of the crops in the  country have been affected,"
said Victor Hugo Molina, director of the Honduran  Coffee Institute.

In  Mexico, which borders Guatemala, agriculture  officials said the fungus is
present but it has not hurt  production.Javier Trujillo Arriaga,  director of vegetable health for  Mexico's pest-control agency, said the  government has a contingency plan to  fight the fungus in case it starts
killings plants like it is doing in  Guatemala.
Coffee producers in  Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Costa  Rica plan a Feb. 27-28 meeting in
San Pedro Sula, Honduras, to discuss common  strategies for combatting coffee  rust.         

___

Associated  Press writers Juan Zamorano in
Panama, Alberto Arce in Honduras, Marco Aleman in  El Salvador and Olga R.
Rodriguez in Mexico contributed to this report.