CHIAPAS: FROM "COFFEE ROUTE" TO DISASTER

Sin Embargo
By: Emma Martinez Landeros
July 8, 2013
Original Americas Program Translation 

The failure of both the state and federal governments to address the epidemic in coffee regions in Chiapas will generate a drop of 50% of its production, produce more unemployment, and therefore, greater social conflict.

El Soconusco, Chiapas, July 8 (Sin Embargo). - Pablo Hernandez (72 years) is a small coffee producer, who every day, rain or shine, at 4am walks for 60 minutes until reaching Recibidero, where he works on three acres of land.

Since late 2011, Pablo lived one of the greatest tragedies of his life. It is now over a year when he began to notice that the leaves of some of his plantations began to fall rapidly and its backs were stained orange. Without stopping to think, he quickly concluded that it was rust. He could not save his crop, because today all plants are infected.

Since 2011 this pest has devastated coffee trees in Latin American countries, from Brazil to Mexico. It is a fungus that grows on the leaves and after they fall, the plant weakens and fails to produce future fruit. The infection spreads rapidly to other areas through packaging bags or by the dispersion of the rain and wind.

When talking about the best coffee beans in the world we rarely stop to think about the exact region where they are harvested, because we usually recognize them by their country of origin.