Costa Rica’s Icafé says new-season coffee crop will be hit by fungus

Costa Rica has cut its outlook for the 2010/11 coffee harvest as a damaging fungus caused by months of heavy rains hit crops, the country’s coffee association said.

Ronald Peters, who heads coffee organization Icafé, told Reuters the Central American country would produce 1.61 million 60-kg bags of coffee in the season, which begins this month. The forecast is down 3.5% from an earlier Icafe projection.

The “Ojo de Gallo” fungus, or Mycena citricolor, grows on coffee tree leaves and causes them to fall, exposing the cherries to wind and rain that can make them rot.

Original source: Reuters