Coffee Berry Borer (Hypothenemus hampei) and its role in the evolutionary diversification of the coffee market

Abstract

The Coffee Berry Borer (CBB) is the main pest that affects coffee crops around the world, causing major economic losses and diminishing beverage quality. A mathematical model is formulated, from the perspective of the Adaptive Dynamics (AD) framework, to describe the evolution of coffee quality as a continuous differentiating attribute related to the mix of healthy and bored coffee. The study involves three stages: first, an agro-ecological model describes coffee production and growth of the CBB population prior to the processing of different qualities of coffee; second, a market model describes the competition between different blends of standard and special coffee; finally, the AD canonical equation is derived to describe the evolution of coffee quality resulting from innovations in the quality attribute filtered by market competition. Interestingly, AD allows to derive conditions for the emergence of diversity, i.e., the establishment of a second type of coffee that coexists with the former and, similarly, for subsequent branching in the quality attributes. The full model provides insights on the impact of CBB control strategies on the long-term market structure. Specifically, a strong control aimed at increasing coffee quality may impoverish the market diversity, independently of the consumers’ budget limitations and corresponding preference for either high or low quality.