NEW YORK – The National Coffee Association of USA (NCA) is organising the webinar “The Coffee Leaf Rust Crisis: The Current Status and Near Term Outlook” on Tuesday, December 3, 2013 at 12:00 PM EDT. Fees for the webinar are $79 for NCA members, $99 for GCA, SCAA, NAMA & CAC members and $119 fornon-members $119.
Coffee Leaf Rust, also known as Roya, is regarded as the most devastating and widespread disease of coffee throughout the world.
This webinar will provide background on the Coffee Leaf Rust crisis including the cause and impact of this devastating disease.
It will also explain the response taken in Central America to combat the crisis and provide an update on progress to date.
Leading industry experts will provide expert insight into the current impact of Coffee Leaf Rust on upcoming crops and discuss what the possible impacts are for the coffee industry.
Question and answer session to follow the presentation.
In the webinar you will learn:
- What caused the coffee leaf rust crisis
- The impact to Central American Coffee farms
- What Central America and the world coffee community have done in response
- An update on the progress of the reponse to date
- Crop estimations for the 2013 and 2014 seasons
- The possible impact to the U.S. coffee industry
The presenters at the webinar will be
Ronald Peters Seevers, Executive Director, Instituto del Café de Costa Rica, ICAFE
Nils Pablo Leporowski Fernández, President, Asociación Nacional de Café, ANACAFE, Guatemala
Ronald Peters Seevers is currently Executive Director of the Instituto del Café de Costa Rica, a non-governmental public entity created by law, which is responsible for regulating the national coffee growing sector and for guaranteeing a system equitable to all participants in the coffee industry: growers, processors, roasters and exporters.
He entered the coffee growing world in 1971 as Manager of Cafetalera Sarchí, S. A. and has been member of several boards of directors of companies related to the coffee sector, such as Compañía Costarricense del Café, S. A.; the National Coffee Growers Chamber; the Costa Rican Coffee Institute and Grupo Financiero Cuscatlán de Costa Rica.
Mr. Seevers is a graduate in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University, Indiana, U.S.A.
Nils Pablo Leporowski Fernández has been the President of the Guatemalan National Coffee Association since November 2012, and before that he was Vice-President from 2009.
He also leads the Coffee Growing Foundation for Rural Development – FUNCAFE, in addtion to the Regional Cooperative Program for Technological Development and Coffee Growing Modernization – PROMECAFE.
Mr. Leporowski is an Agronomist and a graduate of Universidad del Valle.
