Devouring profit - International Coffee Organization

During the field visits many farmers told us about potential losses due to CBB. E.g. Mr.
Vijayakumar pointed out that with poor control of CBB, 30% of the yield could be lost.
Mr. Manojkumar explained that when attacks were high, the expected yield would be
reduced by 20%.
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4.3 Farmers income
reduction due to CBB
Through loss of quality: according to research conducted by Cenicafé, one of the
most important losses caused by CBB is deteriorating coffee quality. This is due to the
consumption of the bean by the CBB as well as secondary fungal or bacterial infections.
This is manifested in the level of defects found in the routine sample taken at
the buying point, which determines the price received by the grower. Under the
Federation’s current buying rules, when the level of defects exceeds 5.5% of the
sample due to CBB damage, a 1% price reduction is applied for each 1% increase in
defects over 3.5%. On the other hand, a premium is applied at the same rate when
the level of defects (traditional defects – “pasilla”, as well as those caused by CBB
damage) is below 3.5%.
Figure 4 shows the income reduction in US dollars per hectare, according to different
levels of attack of CBB in the parchment coffee in Colombia. In this simulation we
take a coffee purchase price of US$13.30/arroba and an average yield of 150 arrobas/
ha/year for intensively farmed coffee (1,875 kg parchment coffee/ha).
Figure 4. Simulation of income reduction through loss of quality due to
CBB attacks.
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