$300 million will be required for pest control alone, and more than $1 billion to renovate the plantations that have been affected.
The figures which have been gathered unofficially indicated that in excess of 1.7 million quintals of coffee have been destroyed by the fungus known as rust in Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador.
The president of the Coffee Exporters Association of Honduras (Adecafeh), Omar Acosta says that the loss in Honduras could reach two million quintals, "The Ihcafé says that no damage has been done, butwe do not understand why they are lying. They should have a plan for the country because it is a serious problem, we all know that there is a strong impact from rust and we believe there is a damage of between 25% and 30% of the crop, which amounts to two million quintals. "
The term of the trust, which expires in 2015 – will have to be extended so that the $37 million that is available can be loaned to producers for the renovation of coffee plantations.
S21.com.gt reports that "Because of the crisis faced by the sector in the country's coffee production in 2001-2002, the government at that time created a trust fund of $100 million, which was to be administered by the central bank, and would serve to provide credit to farmers to boost their crops. Regarding this, the National Coffee Association (Anacafe) believes that reviving the trust and extending its expiration date could save the sector. "
In light of the spread of rust in coffee fields and a drop in international prices, the coffee sector is asking the government to provide support measures.
The president of the National Coffee Association (Anacafe), Nils Leporowski, said it will take their requests to the Cabinet of Government, among which are special considerations in the payment of taxes and exemptions for the importation of chemicals to combat the plague.
The country's coffee association, Anacafe, predicts that export production will be similar to this year.
Coffee producers have closed the current harvest with a 6% increase in export grain, selling a total of 4.5 million hundredweight.
However, projections for the 2011-12 harvest are not so encouraging with producers signaling that production could suffer due to damages to plantations caused by last month's heavy rains.
Foreign exchange earnings from exports of the aromatic 2010-11 crop will total $1,100 million.
The $1,100 million figure, represents a 59% increase compared to the 2009-10 harvest ($ 691.4 million), according to the National Coffee Association (Anacafe).
The record revenues are the result of the excellent prices which coffee reached during the 2010/2011 production, an average of $289 per quintal.
While coffee price continues to rise, Guatemalan coffee growers are confident they can cover shortages in other countries of Central America.
The president of the National Coffee Association, Ricardo Villanueva, said that demand from other countries suffering shortages like Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua, could be met without problems by Guatemala, where there is an estimated existence of 100.000 quintals of high quality coffee."
Bad weather has affected producers in the Pacific coast, some of which are not complying with contracts due to lack of the bean.
Ricardo Villanueva, president of the National Coffee Association, said excessive rains during flowering season left an estimated loss of some 230,000 bags of 60 kilos.
Asked by Reuters, the executive added, "We have a lot of information of non-compliance of contracts ...
Anacafé, the country's Coffee Association, assured that exports for 2009/10 will be between 4.43 and 4.69 million quintals.
This is below the original forecast of 4.77 million quintals.
Ricardo Villanueva, president of the National Coffee Association, explained that “this downward revision happens as we expect irregular rain for the next winter… and that … some coffee growers were unable to fertilize their plantations adequately”.
The corporation announced it won’t purchase coffee from Guatemala during the 2009/10 harvest.
Company spokespersons made the announcement during the II World Coffee Conference, in Antigua, Guatemala.
“…they stated the company is still interested in the product, and that they plan to resume purchasing from Guatemala in the next harvest”, reported Prensalibre.com.
The National Coffee Association of Guatemala estimates that they will export 9% less for the 2008/09 harvest compared to the previous harvest.
The main reason cited by ANACAFE is the increase in production costs. The price of fertilizers, fuel, herbicides, freight, security, and insurance have experience huge increases. This is in addition to the difficulty in obtaining lines of credit due to the international financial crisis.
The 9 coffee exporting countries of the Arabian coffee exported close to 27 million sacks of coffee at 60 kilos each.
The National Coffee Association of Guatemala (Anacafe), reported that the coffee exporting countries (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and the Dominican Republic) registered an increase orf 2.6% in exports during the current harvest (Oct.