Coffee growers face 'emergency' as fertiliser prices soar  

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Many coffee growers are facing a looming emergency as fertiliser costs soar.     

Small-scale farmers in some of the world’s richest coffee-producing regions are struggling to find alternatives to counter soaring fertiliser costs that threaten their livelihoods, even considering desperate measures that could ultimately undermine a much-needed global rebound in supplies. 

In Nicaragua, coffee farmers are slashing fertiliser purchases just to make ends meet. In Guatemala, growers are diluting nutrients to stretch scarce supplies. And in Costa Rica, producers are betting that their soil holds enough lingering nutrients to carry them through the next planting season.

Some farmers are considering organic waste as a cheap substitute to nitrogen, phosphorous, and potash fertilisers, even though such a move could significantly reduce yields.

Fertiliser prices have been soaring worldwide amid supply snags and production woes, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine only exacerbating matters. Russia and neighbouring Belarus are among the world’s top suppliers of crop nutrients. 

“The situation represents a mega emergency for our members,” said Fatima Ismael, general manager of the Nicaraguan coffee cooperative Soppexcca in Jinotega.

“This is a big setback for our strategies,” she said. 

Producers are very anxious, there’s a lot of uncertainty.” 

Guatemalan growers are considering tapping organic compost materials — including chicken manure, household waste, and coffee-cherry pulp — to cut back on fertilisers, according to Juan Luis Barrios, a grower and president of the country’s National Coffee Association. 

Others are considering the use of faster-acting water-soluble nutrients, which may have smaller economic benefits and outcomes that vary from grower to grower, he said.

Costa Rica’s coffee industry is scrutinising soil content in the main producing regions in hopes of reducing the need to apply nutrients on the ground, according to Xinia Chaves, head of the Costa Rican Coffee Institute. 

Bloomberg