Ten Latin American countries will have an early warning system for coffee rust, news that was echoed by regional media in early 2019. The technical foundations of that system are the result of the SRAT project, implemented by PROMECAFE with support from FONTAGRO and the coffee institutes of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Peru. Its potential is huge: these countries produce some 30 million 46-kg bags of coffee, worth about USD 5 billion in exports, grown by 1.1 million farmers on some 2.3 million hectares.

A functioning regional system will make it possible to issue harmonized alerts and recommendations when there is a risk of crisis, and will make production more efficient: costs are estimated to fall by up to 10% thanks to more precise chemical control of rust and other pests. To facilitate its implementation, the project, together with the Secretariat of the Central American Agricultural Council (SECAC) and the PROCAGICA programme, carried out an assessment of the regulatory framework for coffee early warning systems in Central America and the Dominican Republic, with regulatory recommendations for each country.

📄 Final technical report (PDF, in Spanish)
📄 Results and progress (PDF, in Spanish)
🔗 Project page (in Spanish)