A new study from Edith Cowan University has found a way to quickly identify pathogens in coffee berries, Phys.org reported.

About 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed every day, according to Drive Research. However, the coffee berry borer, a dangerous pathogen that destroys coffee berries, has affected the industry, leading to $1 billion in losses in 2023 alone.

The ECU researchers developed an image-processing method with drones to identify infection in coffee berries before it spreads.

"Coffee berry borers are very difficult to identify. They're tiny little insects that are very difficult to see with the naked eye," said ECU lecturer Dr. David Cook. "However, instead of looking for the coffee berry borer itself, we looked for what it did."

When a coffee berry borer has infested a coffee berry, it leaves a tiny hole, about one millimeter in diameter, affecting the seeds of the fruit, which is what we know as a coffee bean.

"If you imagine when you drill into a piece of wood you see little bits of sawdust gather around the outside of the hole," Dr. Cook described. "In the same way, when a borer bores into a coffee berry, they leave an enormous amount of debris, called frass and this is much easier to identify."

The software, developed by ECU masters student Chris Napier, recognizes the size, shape, and number of berries that can quickly detect anomalies. The drones equipped with this software fly over the crops to identify them.

"The problem with the coffee berry borer is if it's not recognized, it spreads through the various berries from bunch to bunch then bush to bush, and it can destroy an entire crop," Dr. Cook said. "This allows farmers to make very quick decisions about which parts of a crop might be infested with this particular pathogen and begin treating [them] immediately."

In addition to coffee berry borers, coffee production has been affected by other insects, bacteria, and fungi. Droughts and stormwater damage have also affected the crops.

In Brazil, the world's largest producer of coffee, intense cold weather, droughts, and other weather factors have caused coffee production to decrease. According to Reuters, production could decline by 6.4% in 2025 and 2026.

These factors have caused coffee prices to hit all-time highs. In the U.S., retail prices of coffee hit $7 a pound in January, 75% more than January 2020. As Reuters projects, prices could even increase by another 25% this year.

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This technology could help prevent surging coffee prices.

"Coffee is a high-value crop," said study co-author Dr. Leisa Armstrong. "If you can eradicate the infection and save a crop rather than losing a percentage of the harvest, then it's a financial improvement. I'm not sure it's going to drop the price, but it might prevent it from going up dramatically if there is a coffee shortage."

The researchers hope that this technology could help identify diseases in other plants and food as well, such as fungus growth on grapes.

"We can adapt this to many different agricultural crops," said Chris Napier. "This could be used for detecting infestation when you need to look at the understory of the plant rather than just on top, so it could be very useful in crops that have bunches and groups, such as grapes."

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