Honduras coffee exports fall by more than a fifth in 2012/2013

UPDATE 1-Honduras coffee exports fall by more than a fifth in 2012/2013 – RTRS
01-Oct-2013 20:01

TEGUCIGALPA, Oct 1 (Reuters) – Coffee exports from Honduras, Central America’s top producer, fell 20.8 percent during the 2012/2013 season compared to the previous cycle because of the deadly fungal outbreak roya, the country’s national coffee institute IHCAFE said on Tuesday.
IHCAFE said exports during the harvesting season, which closed last month, totaled 4.34 million 60-kg bags.
September shipments reached 49,536 60-kg bags, 76.1 percent below the comparable month of the 2011/2012 season, IHCAFE said.
“Roya has hit our (coffee) farms hard during this harvest,” said IHCAFE director Rene Leon.
IHCAFE sees exports during the 2013/2014 season at 4.6 million 60-kg bags, which would mark a 7 percent increase over the previous cycle’s shipments.
Separately, Costa Rica’s coffee institute Icafe said exports fell 8.1 percent in September to 37,672 60-kg bags from 41,020 bags during the same month a year earlier.
Costa Rican exports for the 2012/2013 Oct.-Sept. season totaled 1.398 million bags, down from 1.422 million bags the previous year.
Central America’s major coffee-producing countries are all grappling with the spread of roya, or coffee leaf rust, which is expected to reduce production by 16 percent during the current season. (Full Story)
The coffee season in Central America and Mexico, which together produce more than one-fifth of the world’s arabica beans, runs from October through September.

Table of monthly coffee exports from five Central American producing countries and Mexico: http://link.reuters.com/qan53v