Colombia 2009 Coffee Output Seen at 8.3 Mln Bags

Carlos Gonzalez said at the Sintercafe >coffee conference in Costa Rica that Colombia’s coffee output for 2010 was seen at 11 million bags.

Nestor Osorio, executive director of the International Coffee Organization, said on

Friday at the same event that Colombia’s 2009/10 coffee harvest, which runs from October through September, will come in at 9 million bags.

Gonzalez said the country usually calculates its coffee output in calendar years.

Coffee production in Colombia is being hurt by the rapid spread of broca worms amid unusually high temperatures due to El Nino weather system. The plague causes irreversible damage to plantations by eating into coffee kernels.

But an emergency plan to curb its effects is expected to yield good results in 2010 as newly renovated fields return to production and farmers increase their use of fertilizers.