The world coffee crop is up marginally from last year to a total of 150 million bags weighing 60 kg apiece, boosted by record-setting harvests in Indonesia and Honduras, said the USDA’s semi-annual Coffee: World Markets and Trade report.
Indonesia is the fourth-largest coffee producer and Honduras ranks seventh. But in the No. 1 coffee producer, Brazil, production is forecast to fall 9 percent, to 49.4 million bags, due to hot and dry weather in the states of Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais and São Paulo. Brazil grows one-third of the coffee in the world. Vietnam is second with nearly one-fifth of the global crop. Vietnam is forecast to increase its bean exports by one-third this marketing year, working down the stockpile that was built up last year when low prices discouraged sales.
In Colombia, the No. 3 grower, an aggressive tree-renovation program is paying off with sustained strong output. Growers planted trees resistant to the destructive coffee rust fungus over the past several years, and eventually replaced trees on 70 percent of their acreage. Coffee rust affected as much as 40 percent of the trees at the peak of infection. Production is forecast to rise to 13.4 million bags this year, up slightly from last year, allowing a modest increase in exports. “Colombia is expected to rely on imported beans from Ecuador and Peru for just 10 percent of consumption, down from nearly 90 percent a few years ago,” said the USDA.