Hailstorm causes long-term damage to coffee crops

"We're going to have to start skeletonizing the crop and we're going to spend the same cultural treatments and more labor to be sprouting, so that we can only harvest in 2028. This year, 2027, 26, 27, there's nothing, it goes to zero. I don't know what I'm going to spend yet, I have to do the math, but it's just the loss from now on", stated Sérgio Nabak.

Coffee flowering, the stage that marks the beginning of the productive definition of the harvest, occurs between September and October, and can last until November. This is one of the most important cycles of the crop, responsible for the formation of fruits.

"In areas that were less affected, with lighter rains, we can use curative measures to reduce these losses. So we apply a fungicide, copper, a curative effect there and pay attention to the development of the crop. We also use nutritional supplements to help development", he explained.

"In the areas that were most affected, where there were more severe rains, we have much greater damage because we lose many leaves, many branches, in addition to the flowers. The plant is very depleted and then it loses the energy source it had to project itself for the coming years. That's why we say that the rock rain doesn't just affect this harvest or the following harvest, it can affect up to two or three years of your crop", said Guilherme Gaudêncio.

"The first step in both situations is to technically document the damage that happened to the crop. A report from an agronomist demonstrating the effects for this harvest and for future harvests, if any, is the most important", he stated.

"In the case of insurance, this report will be used to sue the insurance company and actually request compensation. And in the case of no insurance, this producer probably has a funding contract for some type of loan with a financial institution or private contracts with trading companies and cooperatives. So, this report will be the document used to sue the financial institution and request the extension of this debt", he explained.

"It has to be. We are really hard-working people, we are from the countryside, because it's in our blood. Otherwise, we would have given up. The desire is to sell and stay in the city, but we, because it's in our blood, come from family and we are persistent", added the coffee grower.