Coffee leaf rust is threatening to spike again. The devastating fungus found in every coffee-producing country worldwide ruining significant portions of a farmโ€™s harvest posed one of the largest threats to coffee, leading many in the industry to seek out or hybridize new rust-resistant trees in hopes of curbing its effects. But now, the Colombian coffee federation has announced the discovery of nine new โ€œmore aggressiveโ€ variants of leaf rust-causing fungus.

As reported by Reuters, coffee leaf rust, or roya, is caused by Hemelia vastatrix, a fungus that affects the leaves of the coffee tree, inhibiting its ability to produce fruit. It was first discovered in Colombia in 1983, and since then, Cenicafeโ€”the National Center for Investigations of Coffeeโ€”has uncovered a total of 22 different variants of the fungus.

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The extant varieties of coffee leaf rust have the ability to destroy up to 80% of a total crop in โ€œsusceptible plant varietiesโ€ if not dealt with swiftly. With nearly four decades of mitigating the deadly disease, Colombiaโ€™s crop makeup consists of 84% rust-resistant varieties. Even still, resistance is not immunity, with an average of around 6% total loss in crops in resistant varieties, which is down considerably from the 20% average loss in susceptible varieties but still a significant loss all the same.

How the rust-resistant varieties will fare against the more aggressive strains of coffee leaf rust is unclear. The discovery has led Cenicafe general director Roberto Velez to โ€œcall on coffee producers to build or renew their crops with resistant varieties, using certified seeds.โ€

For more on the new variants, read the full story on Reuters.

Top image via World Coffee Research.

Zac Cadwaladerย is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas.ย Read more Zac Cadwaladerย on Sprudge.

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