Farmers shift from coffee to cocoa as temperatures soar

NEW YORK/JINOTEGA, NICARAGUA: Brimming with shade trees and bounded by the Tuma River, the lower climes of Roger Castellon’s farm in Nicaragua’s mountainous Jinotega area were long ideal for growing coffee.

But with temperatures on the rise, the veteran coffee farmer is shifting his lowerlying land to a crop that, although new for him, enjoys a rich legacy in the region: cocoa.

“Coffee is no longer viable due to climate change,” said Castellon, who calls his 420ha farm Los Nogales.

Soaring temperatures in Central America, linked to climate change, are forcing many farmers to replace coffee trees with cocoa – a crop once so essential to the region’s economy it was used as currency.

Farmers across the region, known for high-quality arabica beans, are still recovering from a coffee leaf rust disease known as roya, which devastated crops over the past four years. Now, lower-altitude areas are becoming unsuitable for growing coffee as temperatures heat up. Cocoa thrives in the warmer weather.

The quiet shift across the region shows up in export data: This crop year, coffee bean exports from six countries in the region – excluding Honduras – will fall for the third straight year, to 8.14 million 60kg bags – the lowest level since the 1973/1974 cycle.

Cocoa production and exports have steadily risen. In Nicaragua, cocoa exports totaled 3 839 tons in 2015, up more than 80 percent from 2014; and in El Salvador, a coalition is working to expand cocoa acreage a hundredfold.

Even in Honduras, which has seen a successful recovery from roya, the government is requiring growers to substitute 8 percent of coffee land to cocoa. The region’s cocoa rebirth could ease concerns about supply stability amid growing emerging market demand, weather scares and the potential for civil strife in Ivory Coast and Ghana, which produce 60 percent of world output.

Current price levels are also sending a signal to producers to transition to cocoa. Coffee futures fell 24 percent in 2015 to around $1.20 a lb, while cocoa futures have risen for four consecutive years to trade around $3 000 a ton, or $1.36 a lb.

Growing consumer demand for higher-quality products in both markets is also driving the shift.