In November 2010, the state Agriculture Board approved quarantine and treatment measures for Big Island coffee, however, that lapsed in December and another plan for quarantine is currently before the board. In January 2011, the board approved the use of
Strategy to defeat coffee-destroying pest discussed at Kona expo
By Chelsea Jensen
Stephens Media
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 last week.
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.
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 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.
