TEGUCIGALPA: Honduran coffee exports grew for the fifth straight month in May, jumping 79% year-on-year helped by higher demand and a delayed shipment from the previous month, an industry leader said on Thursday.

Honduras, Central America’s top coffee exporter, exported 935,674 60-kilo bags of coffee beans in May, compared with 522,847 bags shipped a year earlier, according to preliminary data from national coffee institute IHCAFE.

Dagoberto Suazo, a producer and an IHCAFE board member, credited a spike in demand for May’s boost, adding that some coffee meant to ship in April was not shipped until May.

“We are advancing in meeting the export forecast for this harvest,” Suazo said in an interview. Honduras plans to export about 5.52 million 60-kilo bags during the 2022-2023 harvest, up from 4.70 million 60-kilo bags shipped from the previous harvest.

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So far, cumulative exports for the 2022-2023 season reached 3.69 million 60-kilo bags last month, 10.8% more than the 3.33 million shipped in the same period of the 2021-2022 season.

The Central American country, which exports largely arabica coffee, harvests its crop from October to September.