Current international coffee prices of around $1.15 per lb are an "embarrassment," the head of Colombia's coffee federation said on Wednesday, and growers are struggling to make a living off the crop. Colombia is the world's top producer of washed arabica. The growers' federation has repeatedly asked for government aid this year, amid lower domestic and international coffee prices and a once-strengthening peso currency that cut export income.
"Price levels of $1.15 are an embarrassment. Price levels of that kind are unexplained because I've not seen the cost of a cup of coffee go down anywhere in the world, nor that a pound of coffee has gone down in cost on supermarket shelves," federation head Roberto Velez told journalists. Coffee-growers are barely breaking even with current prices, added Velez, who has said he would like a price of at least $1.30 per pound, with an exchange rate of 3,000 pesos to the dollar.
Comments
Comments are closed.