咖啡界的埃博拉 咖啡鏽病"羅亞"蔓延

WHEN Jesus Maria Aguirre saw his coffee bushes wither away, he knew that he had lost the sole source of income for his family. “We would go to collect coffee and would come back with our baskets nearly empty, ” says the Colombian Grower, recalLing the pernicious effects of the “coffee rust” fungus, or roya.

當赫蘇斯·瑪利亞·阿吉雷看到了他的咖啡樹日漸枯萎時，他意識到，這下他的家庭失去了唯一的收入來源。“我們去田裏採咖啡豆，結果只能籃子空空地回來。”這位哥倫比亞的種植者在回想起這種咖啡鏽病真菌，或被稱爲“羅亞”所帶來的惡性影響時這樣說到。

The fungus stunts the growth of the fruit of arabica coffee plants. It infected about 40% of Colombia's crop between 2008 and 2012. Production plunged from a high of 12.6m 60kg bags a year in 2007 to just 7.7m bags in 2012. As supply from Colombia shrank, international buyers turned to growers elsewhere.

這種真菌阻滯了阿拉比卡豆咖啡樹果實的生長。在2008年至2012年間，它已經使哥倫比亞40%的作物受到了感染，產量因此由2007年的峯值1260萬袋60公斤的咖啡豆暴跌至2012年的僅770萬袋。隨着哥倫比亞的咖啡供應量的萎縮，國際上的咖啡買家開始向其它咖啡生產地尋求供應。

What Mr Aguirre went through then is now the lot of farmers throughout Central America, the Dominican Republic, southern Mexico and Jamaica. Production there fell by 30% between 2011 and 2013 because of roya, reckons the International Coffee Organisation. USAID thinks it has caused $1 billion of economic damage in Latin America since 2012. This time Colombians are the ones taking advantage.

當時阿吉雷先生所遭受的窘境現在已經席捲了中美洲、多米尼加、南墨西哥以及牙買加。據國際咖啡組織估計，由於受“羅亞”影響，這些地區的咖啡產量在2011年至2013年間已下跌了30%。美國國際開發署認爲，自從2012年起，這種鏽病已經導致了拉丁美洲範圍內高達10億美元的經濟損失。不過這次，哥倫比亞的種植戶卻可以置身事外甚至因此獲利。

On his farm on the slopes of the country's central mountain range, Mr Aguirre today presides over 1.5 hectares (4 acres) of healthy bushes plump with red berries. For yields to recover, he had to yank up fungus-prone bushes and plant a new variety that promised to fight off the blight. He was one of thousands of farmers who joined in a countrywide scheme run by the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation, which represents more than 500, 000 independent growers. By June 2014 more than 3 billion bushes had been replanted.

現如今，在阿吉雷先生位於哥倫比亞中部山脈山坡上的農場裏，他照料着超過1.5公頃的種滿紅色果實的健康的咖啡樹。當初爲了使產量恢復，他不得不剔除了易感真菌的植株並且種植了一種據信可抗枯萎的新品種。阿吉雷先生是全國範圍種植計劃的數千參與者之一，這個計劃是由哥倫比亞咖啡種植者聯合會運作的，這個聯合會代表了超過50萬的獨立種植戶。截至2014年6月，這種新植株已重新種植了超過30億棵。

Three-quarters of them were replaced with a roya-resistant variety known as Castillo, which had been developed in the labs of Cenicafé, the coffee federation's research arm, after 13 years of selective breeding. Lindsey Bolger, head coffee buyer for Keurig Green Mountain, a roaster in the United States, said the industry was “on pins and needles” about whether the Castillo would work. It has. Colombia produced 11.5m bags in the 12 months to June 2014, up by 31% on the previous 12-month period, according to the coffee federation. Buyers are coming back.

這些咖啡樹中的四分之三被一種被稱爲“卡斯蒂羅”的 “抗羅亞”品種替代，此品種是由哥倫比亞國家咖啡研究中心實驗室經過13年精心選育開發出來的。林塞·博爾捷，美國綠山咖啡烘焙公司的首席採購，在談及“卡斯蒂羅”能否擔任恢復產量重任時，形容咖啡產業對此是“如坐鍼氈”。事實上，“卡斯蒂羅”做到了。據咖啡聯合會數據，截至2014年6月的12個月內，哥倫比亞出產了1150萬袋咖啡豆，比上個同期的產量增長了31%。採購商們又把目光開始投回哥倫比亞。

Fernando Gast, Cenicafé's director, says seeds of the Castillo coffee plants have been sent to Mexico, El Salvador and Costa Rica for evaluation. But he warns that Colombia's success story is not directly transferable to Central America. The Castillo variety was created for Colombia's needs and may not adapt to Central America's soil and climate, he says.

費爾南多·加斯特，哥倫比亞國家咖啡研究中心實驗室主任，表示“卡斯蒂羅”的種子已被送往墨西哥、薩爾瓦多以及哥斯達黎加進行進一步評估。但是他也警告說，哥倫比亞的產業復甦經驗並不可被中美洲地區直接套用。“卡斯蒂羅”品種是爲了滿足哥倫比亞的需求而研發生產的，所以可能並不適合在中美洲的土壤及氣候環境條件下種植。

Cenicafé's 89 researchers cannot rest easy, either. They are working on a project to map the coffee genome. That should help them develop new varieties that will not only resist roya, which is continuously evolving, but will also be less susceptible to erratic weather. The search for a stronger brew is never over.

實驗室的89位研究人員們也還不能高枕無憂。他們現在正在進行一個繪製咖啡樹基因譜的項目，這將有助他們培育新的變種，這種變種不僅能抵抗“羅亞”及其以後可能出現的其它變種，還能更不易受到不穩定天候影響的新品種植株。對於更優良品種的研究總會一直進行下去。