The Costa Rica Coffee Institute (Icafe) emitted and early warning for the threat of coffee rust (Hemileia vastatrix) for four regions: Central Valley, Coto Brus, Turrialba and Zona Norte (North Zone), where the weather conditions for these months puts the production in high risk.

“The current weather conditions favor the appearance of coffee rust. There will be important increases in the incidence of this disease during the months of July and August if the necessary preventive measures are not followed”, explains the release.

The areas of Western Valley, Los Santos and Perez Zeledon are under a moderated threat, at higher altitude higher threat.

Icafe recommends keeping constant observation of the coffee plants to determine the presence of coffee rust.

“The presence of coffee rust is high and unusual for the first weeks of July, the increase obeys to the weather conditions that have been present so far, this situation will promote an accelerated progress of coffee rust during the month of August in the majority of coffee regions in the country”.

“The percentage of national incidence of coffee rust in the plantations with disease controls increased by 4.7% in the last month. The regions of Coto Brus and Turrialba had the highest raise, which could mean the weakening of the continuity of the chemical program for the control of coffee rust. During the next 30 days, constant progress of the disease will continue towards highest incidence values.”

Coffee Rust (Hemileia vastatrix) is a fungus that causes a disease that is devastating to susceptible coffee plantations.