Desamparados, Costa Rica - Recent

Storyline:
Costa Rica, one global leading producer and exporter of coffee, is being forced to innovate to keep producing one of the world's favorite brews as precipitation grows fickle due to climate change and the El Nino phenomenon.

The Central American nation's lush Central Valley has long boasted the ideal climate conditions for growing the Arabica coffee beans that prefer cool climates with high humidity, but farmers report this is rapidly changing. Frequent scorching weathers and droughts in recent years have wiped out 15 percent of the coffee yield in some farms.

Gustavo Andre Jimenez, executive director of the Costa Rican Coffee Institute that specializes in optimizing coffee cultivation and breeding techniques, warned of the negative impact of climate change on the country's coffee industry.

Eduardo Navarro runs a coffee plantation that covers about 80 hectares at an altitude of 1,300 meters in Desamparados canton. He reaped 1,200 bags of beans in the 2023-2024 harvest season. He said rising temperatures and reduced rainfall in the first half of the year will result in a yield drop.

In the past, farmers like Navarro needed to do little more than plant and wait for the country's once-consistent rains. Now he has to try some new coffee growing methods and techniques to cope with the challenges posed by climate change.

At a coffee growing experiment field, agricultural technicians are trying a new growing means by expanding the distance between coffee trees and planting vegetation to retain soil moisture.

Meanwhile, the Costa Rican government has implemented a low-carbon coffee plan to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and water resources, and optimize the management system of coffee farms through financial subsidies and preferential loans.

Costa Rica is one of the world's smaller coffee producers and has nearly 27,000 coffee farms across the country. More than 80 percent of Costa Rica's coffee is exported.

In the past year, the country's currency, colon, has appreciated by more than 20 percent, which has also had a negative impact on coffee exports. According to local coffee growers, for every bushel (about 27 kilograms) of coffee they export, their income will be 27,000 colones (about 51 U.S. dollars) less than in 2022.

Shotlist:
Desamparados, Costa Rica - Recent:
1. Various of coffee plantation, trees;
2. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Gustavo Andre Jimenez, executive director, Costa Rican Coffee Institute (partially overlaid with shot 3):
"Climate change has an earlier-than-expected impact. In the last harvest season, Costa Rica's coffee production decreased by 200,000 quintals (20,000 tons) year on year. The direct impact of climate change on us is that it makes the environment for growing coffee hotter and coffee trees are more sensitive to some fungal diseases."
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3. Coffee trees
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4. Cicafe sign, flags before plant;
5. Various of workers sorting out coffee beans;
6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Eduardo Navarro, coffee grower (partially overlaid with shot 7):
"It didn't rain here from March to April this year due to the El Nino phenomenon. This means that the buds of the coffee trees can't bloom because they don't get enough water. If there are fewer coffee flowers, there will be fewer coffee cherries. So coffee growers here expect a reduction in production in the 2024-2025 harvest season."
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7. Coffee trees, withered leaves
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8. Workers carrying bags of coffee beans;
9. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Eduardo Navarro, coffee grower (partially overlaid with shot 7):
"In the face of climate change, it is important for us coffee growers to do two things. The first is to use drip irrigation technology, but this technology is expensive for coffee growers. The second is to replace existing coffee varieties. We have other varieties that can resist droughts, but even drought-resistant varieties need water to grow well."
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10. Various of coffee trees
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11. Various of coffee trees with larger distance, green vegetation between lines;
12. Agricultural technicians working on experiment field.

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