Coffee berry borer still concern

BY CHELSEA JENSEN | WEST HAWAII TODAY

Coffee farms from Kona to Ka’u are feeling the impact of spreading coffee berry borer infestations. However, a three-pronged approach aimed at combating the beetle appears to be helping, a University of Hawaii extension agent and area coffee growers said Friday.

From Kaloko to Milolii and into Ka’u coffee trees are now infested with the coffee berry borer, and the beetle is affecting anywhere from 1 percent to 90 percent of crops, said Andrea Kawabata, a University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources extension agent based in Kainaliu. The pest was recently confirmed at a coffee farm located above Pahala, she said.

The beetle, she said, also does not appear to discriminate between elevation as it is found at farms ranging from the 600-foot elevation to the 2,200-foot elevation.

“As of today, there are no places in Kona that are not infested with the coffee berry borer beetle, however, through regulation and help of the community, North and East Hawaii are not infested, yet, that I know of,” Kawabata said.

Kawabata provided the coffee berry borer update during the Kona Coffee Farmers Association’s fifth annual Coffee Expo held Friday at the Old Kona Airport’s Makaeo Events Pavilion in Kailua-Kona. Kawabata also provided results from a November 2011 nonscientific, perception-based survey of 104 Hawaii coffee farmers, most of whom hailed from Captain Cook, Holualoa, Honaunau and Keauhou.

From the nonscientific survey, Kawabata said CTAHR learned 56 percent of the 104 respondents reported having coffee berry borer infestations in 2010 while 36 percent said they had none. Some seven percent did not know, she said.

The same data was not available for the 2011 season, however, Kawabata did provide results from the survey comparing this season’s first harvest with the second harvest.

About half of the 94 farmers who responded to the question indicated a presence of coffee berry borers during the first harvest and an apparent increase in the pest between harvests. A third of respondents reported a decrease in damage or no damage at all, Kawabata said.

The coffee berry borer is a small dark-brown beetle, about the size of a sesame seed, that was first confirmed in the Kona area in September 2010 and then in one area of Ka’u the following May. The pest destroys coffee when it burrows into the fruit and lives its life cycle within the seed, or bean, causing damage that makes the coffee relatively worthless.

In November 2010, the state Agriculture Board approved quarantine and treatment measures for Big Island coffee, however, that lapsed in December 2011 and another plan for quarantine is currently before the board. In January 2011, the board approved the use of the fungus Beauveria bassiana, which is naturally-occurring and kills the coffee berry borer.

Using that fungus, in addition to other approaches, is an important aspect toward combating the beetle, Kawabata and Kona Coffee Farmers Association Pests and Diseases Committee members Suzanne Shriner and Bob Smith said during a panel discussion. Farmers need to take a three-pronged approach that involves sanitizing coffee fields by completely stripping trees and removing all fallen fruit, spraying the fungus on a regular schedule and using coffee berry borer traps, Shriner said.

“The most important thing that you can do is clear the coffee off your trees,” Shriner said and noted by following those practices at her Honaunau farm she saw her infestation rate drop from 60 percent in 2010 to 3 percent this season. “I believe it was because I cleared every single bean off the tree and ground.”

Louise Winn, who operates the one-acre coffee farm Alii Pride in Honaunau, also said following that three-pronged approach helped reduce the impact coffee berry borer has on her crop. During the 2010 coffee season, Winn estimated the coffee berry borer infested approximately 80 percent of her crop. This season, after taking care to sanitize, spray and set up the traps, she estimated the beetle affected about 65 percent of her crop.

“This year it’s still bad, but we’re farmers, and we’re optimistic,” she said. “It’s a dent, and it’s encouraging, but it just means we’ll have to keep doing more of what we’re doing.”

For more information on the coffee berry borer, visit the University of Hawaii’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources’ coffee berry borer website at ctahr.hawaii.edu/site/CBB.aspx.

cjensen@westhawaiitoday.com