ABSTRACT
The stimulant beverage coffee is consumed by at least half of the world population and by more than 80% in several European and North American countries. It is one of the most important agricultural commodities in global trade. World coffee production has increased from 3.6 (1963-67) to 8.9 (2013-15) million tonnes of green coffee, harvested annually from some 10.5 million ha in more than 60 intertropical countries, as a result of intensified crop production and also considerable expansion on newly cleared and planted land, in Vietnam and Brazil in particular (FAO, 2012). Concurrently, the share of Arabica coffees decreased from 75% to 60%, of which more than 80% is produced in Latin America. Arabica coffees (Coffea arabica) are generally sold at twice the price of Robustas (Coffea canephora) or more, on account of superior beverage quality (ICO, 2014). However, costs of production are much higher, mainly due to more stringent demands for soil and climatic conditions, crop management, primary processing and control of several pests and diseases, including the potentially very destructive coffee leaf rust (CLR) and berry (CBD) diseases (Van der Vossen et al., 2015).
