The tax promoted by the government of Nicaragua on coffee producers has also been rejected by exporters of the grain.
The bill promoted by the government to charge producers between $1 and $5 per quintal of coffee in order to finance the National Development and Transformation of Coffee Plantations will not directly affect the export sector as it is only producers who have to pay the tax, however, they believe that this is not the time to establish such fees.
The abundant harvests in Brazil and Colombia have pushed down the price of the grain, which could reach less than $100 a quintal.
"This puts Nicaraguan coffee in a difficult position as it has long been the main export product of Nicaragua ..." reported Laprensa.com.ni.
According to the specialist in international markets at Invercasa Puesto de Bolsa, Raul Amador, the downward trend in prices will continue, because until a few days ago the average price per quintal of coffee was $109.10.
Losses caused by the rust disease in Honduras amount to 1.8 million bags, 650,000 quintals in Guatemala, 600,000 in Nicaragua, 400,000 in El Salvador, 200,000 in Costa Rica and 60,000 in Panama.
Those are the estimates of the Central American Organization of Coffee Exporters (ORCECA), who was unwilling to speculate on how much income the region would not receive because of declining exports.
Projections by the futures markets indicate that the price of coffee will only rebound in 2015, remaining low until then.
A low growth in demand (no more than 2%) and an increase in production in Brazil (50.8 million kilograms in 2012 to 50 million projected for the 2013 harvest), has led to a fall in price from the $313 earned per quintal in May 2011.
The disease is advancing steadily, with no public or private plans in place to combat the scourge, which is making its greatest appearance since the seventies.
Laprensa.com.ni reports on the destructive influence of the "Roya" blight on coffee plantations in Nicaragua, but the drama is being experienced with similar intensity throughout Central America.
In the first ten months of the current crop foreign exchange revenues totaled $374.7 million, $37.2 million less than in the same period in the last harvest.
The decline in foreign exchange earnings has been caused in part by the decline in export volumes (1.71 million quintals from October to July this year versus 1.83 million quintals in the same period last year) coupled with a slight decline in the average price per quintal.
In Nicaragua some coffee farmers obtain average crop yields of 35 quntals per acre of green coffee.
A major challenge for Nicaraguan coffee growers is to increase their productivity and achieve technological and administrative renewal.
"In the last ten years the national yield has fluctuated between 7.7 and 12.10 quintals per acre and the average during that period was 10.29 quintals per acre, one of the lowest in Latin America.
The country’s main export product is left without a voice or vote in the international organization, and is at risk of being left out of development projects.
The debt held by the country for payments as a member of the organization is close to $200 000, and jeopardizes participation in development projects promoted by the International Coffee Organization (OIC in Spanish).
The Coffee Exporters association (Excan) is backing the planting of this grain, arguing that there is a "real opportunity" to diversify crops.
Cony Pérez, the Association's general manager, added that robusta coffee production satisfies medium-term internal demand as well possibly being exported internationally in the long term.
Pérez added that, "if Nicaragua can capture 2% or 3% of the world's robusta market would equate to the sale of two million hundredweight and generate $140 million worth of foreign exchange".