In mid April, I was invited to attend the emergency Rust Summit hosted by World Coffee Research and Guatemala's PROMECAFE. Along with Susan Aleman, the Director of Programs in our Lima office, I headed to Guatemala city to attend the three-day event. Immediately following the SCAA event in Boston, WRC's Rust Summit drew approximately 150 leaders from across the supply chain including industry associations, institutions, roasters, NGOs, multi-laterals, financiers, certifiers and scientists. I was on a team that participated in pre-event meetings regarding communications and extension services strategies, followed by two and half days of roundtable discussions. A key takeaway was that current recovery strategies focus on the conventional market and often overlook the organic market--reinforcing the unique value of our Roya Recovery Project. Although the event provided a good "level-set" opportunity, it represented the beginning of a large and complex effort to address farmers' immediate socio-economic needs, support longterm research efforts and everything in between.
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