A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE AGRONOMIC AND ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY OF ORGANIC COFFEE PRODUCTION

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Abstract
Organic coffee is one of several types of speciality coffees selling at a premium over mainstream coffees because of distinct origin and flavour, environment-friendly production or socio-economic concerns for the smallholder coffee growers. The demand for organic coffee in Western Europe, North America and Japan exceeds the present supply, which is still small (−1 year−1) large additional amounts of composted organic matter will have to come from external sources to meet nutrient requirements (especially N and K). Most smallholders will be unable to acquire such quantities and have to face declining yields. Organic farming does not necessarily reduce incidence of diseases and pests below economically harmful thresholds, while the humid conditions of heavily shaded coffee may actually stimulate the outbreak of others. These and other aspects peculiar to the preconditions of organic coffee production are addressed in this review. It is concluded that the concept of organic farming in its strict sense, when applied to coffee, is not sustainable and also not serving the interests of the producer and consumer as much as the proponents would like us to believe. On the other hand, agronomically and economically sustainable coffee production is feasible by applying best practices of crop production and post-harvest processing.

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