Colombia's coffee production will be between 11.5 million and 12 million 60-kg bags in 2014, up from a previous estimate of 11.4 million bags, the head of the farmer-funded growers' federation said on Friday, thanks to good weather and tree renovation. "We are very excited about the harvest this year, we think it will be between 11.5 million and 12 million bags," Luis Genaro Munoz told Reuters in an interview at his Bogota office.
Colombia, the world's No 1 producer of washed arabica beans, had a harvest of 10.9 million 60-kg bags in 2013, the highest production in decades, which followed four years of output lows. Munoz said the increase was thanks to good weather and the planting of 3 billion new trees as part of a crop-renewal program. There were fears at the start of the year about the El Nino weather phenomenon, which can lead to drought and lower yields, but Munoz said that it was unlikely to have much effect on the crop after all.
"We're not alarmed by anything, I think in general terms in coffee we don't have any surprises," he added. Production in August was 1.15 million 60-kg bags, an increase of 49 percent over the same month in 2013, according to figures released on Friday by the federation. Munoz was confident that international prices would remain between $1.70 and $2 per lb.
Colombia has benefited from a fall in production in Central America, whose trees have suffered roya fungus infestation, much as Colombia's did several years ago, Munoz said. The federation is discouraging farmers from increasing the area of their cultivation's, urging them instead to focus on the productivity of the 930,000 hectares of coffee currently planted in the Andean country. "The strategy we're focusing on is increasing productivity in those 930,000 hectares," he said. "We're not pushing further planting."