Hawaii: Deadly Beetle infestation eating its way through iconic Kona coffee crop
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Pastor Dale Morgan
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Mar 2, 2011, 6:04:59 AM3/2/11
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Plagues,
Pestilences and Diseases
Hawaii: Deadly Beetle infestation eating its way through
iconic Kona coffee crop
By Karin Stanton, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press
* In this photo taken Wednesday Feb. 23, 2011, Kona coffee
farmer Tommy Greenwell checks a trap hanging from a coffee tree on
his farm in Captain Cook, Hawaii. A beetle smaller than a sesame
seed is boring its way into Kona coffee beans and threatening the
nation’s only coffee growing region’s premiere crop. Greenwall
said about 25 percent of farms in the Kona region are infected and
that farmers have lost roughly 2 percent of the crop this year.
(AP Photo/Karin Stanton)Enlarge
KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii - A beetle smaller than a sesame seed is
boring its way into Kona coffee beans and threatening the premier
crop of the only coffee-growing region in the United States.
More than 600 farmers in North Kona and South Kona, on the west
side of Hawaii's Big Island, are preparing to coat their fields
with a suffocating fungus and are taking other measures to save
their livelihoods and protect the world famous Kona coffee brand.
While they're confident they can limit the damage, they
acknowledge they face a long fight against a beetle that will
almost certainly reduce harvests and force costly chemical
treatments and other work.
"It definitely has made growing Kona coffee more challenging,"
said Tommy Greenwell, owner of Greenwell Farms. "Once the beetle
bores into the coffee cherry, it digs out a home and lays its
eggs. That bean is no longer useable in coffee products. "
The beetle, a bug known as Hypothenemus hampei that is native to
Africa, was formally identified in Hawaii in September, but
farmers have reported spotting it for two years. No one knows how
it arrived in Hawaii, but growers said they're not especially
surprised because it's seen in other coffee-growing regions
throughout the world.
"There are 101 theories about how it got here. All we know is it
got here from another country and it's a very, very good
hitchhiker," Greenwell said. "How could we really know? It's not
important."
What's vital is how to fight the bug, which if not handled
effectively could devastate one of Hawaii's top exports.
According to that National Agricultural Statistics Service,
farmers in Hawaii last year grew 7.9 million pounds (3.6 million
kilograms) of coffee, a drop of 800,000 pounds (363,000 kilograms)
from the year before and down from nearly 10 million pounds (4.5
million kilograms) in 2000. That figure includes coffee grown in
other Big Island districts, as well as on the islands of Kauai and
Maui. Only beans grown in North and South Kona can be sold as Kona
Coffee.
Greenwall said about 25 per cent of farms in the Kona region are
infected and farmers have lost roughly 2 per cent of the crop this
year.
A key advantage for Hawaii farmers is that growers elsewhere in
the world have plenty of experience with the beetle and chemicals
are available to aid in the fight.
The state Board of Agriculture last week approved importing two
pesticides that contain fungal spores that kill the beetle. The
fungus occurs naturally in Hawaii soil but must be sprayed in
greater volume to smother the beetles and prevent them from boring
into individual beans.
Board of Agriculture Chairman Russell Kokubun said the state
needed to take action to protect the industry.
"Coffee is a very important commodity and great resource for the
state. It's an export product so it brings in new revenue and it
helps brand the Hawaii name," he said. "There was no real question
that we needed to do something quickly."