Colombia’s coffee production in January fell 41% from a year earlier to 535,000 60-kg bags due to the continued effects of heavy rains on the crop, the country’s coffee federation said on Thursday.
The world’s top producer of high-quality Arabica beans posted a third consecutive year of lower-than-expected coffee production in 2011 as bad weather, fungus and a tree renovation program keep output below historic averages of 11 million bags.
The federation said that exports went down 37.4 percent to 531,000 sacks last month versus January 2011.
“The coffee crop in the first half of 2012 will reflect the adverse climatic conditions of last year,” the federation said, referring to how last year the country was hit by heavy rains.
In 2011, coffee output dropped to 7.8 million bags, down 12% versus 2010 and the worst year in more than three decades.
Colombia, one of the world’s top coffee exporters, may have to wait four more years to recover output to historical levels when renovated trees reach full production, the coffee federation told Reuters in January.
