Small coffee producer Hector Perez shows coffee beans damaged by ...

AP FILE PHOTO, FEB. 9, 2013 | published: May 19, 2014

Small coffee producer Hector Perez shows coffee beans damaged by the roya fungus in San Gaspar Vivar, Guatemala. The U.S. government is stepping up efforts to help Central American farmers fight a devastating coffee disease. A fungus called coffee rust already has caused more than $1 billion in damage across the Latin American region. It is especially deadly to Arabica coffee, the bean that makes up most high-end, specialty coffees.