As a result of the imbalance reported in world trade flows due to the pandemic, Nicaraguan coffee producers have been affected by the shortage of containers facing the country.
Because the grain has not matured with the normal speed, at the end of the second half of December of the 2020-2021 agricultural season, the volume harvested in the country had fallen 23% compared to what was reported at the same date of the 2019-2020 cycle.
According to businessmen of the sector, the delay in the maturation of coffee is mainly because during 2020 in almost all the country the rains arrived late, a phenomenon that interrupted the normal cycle of the grain.
From July 27th to 30th, the XXIV International Tasting The Best of Panama will take place virtually, in which 45 producers registered a total of 161 specialty coffee lots.
Laestrella.com.pa reviews that "... The Specialty Coffee Association of Panama (SCAP) has completed the registration process and as of June 15 will receive 24,150 pounds of the world's most coveted coffee, which has been carefully selected by producers.
Because of the lack of investment in recent years in the maintenance of the coffee park, in the first three months of the current harvest in El Salvador a 46% year-on-year drop in the volume of coffee production is reported.
Figures from the Salvadoran Coffee Council (CSC) indicate that from October to December 2019, nearly 358,000 quintals of coffee have been harvested, a volume that is lower than the 668,000 quintals produced in the same period in 2018.
For the 2019-2020 crop, production is estimated at 1.91 million quintals, about 12% more than in the previous cycle, partly due to the renewal of some coffee plantations.
The Coffee Institute of Costa Rica (Icafé) forecasts that coffee production will increase by 196,760 sacks of 46 kilograms of processed beans, from 1,717,659 quintals reported in the 2018-2019 cycle to 1,914,419 projected for the 2019-2020 harvest.
Natural or legal persons who wish to register as exporters with the Honduran Coffee Institute will no longer have to comply with the requirement to prove a minimum share capital of $1 million.
Directors of the Honduran Coffee Institute (Ihcafe) reported that the market commission had been managing the proposal since 2018, which was already approved by the National Coffee Council (Conacafé).
If the international prices of bananas, coffee, sugar and palm oil do not improve, and if combined with a global economic recession, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador could stop exporting as much as $2.268 million altogether in 2021.
According to the report "Proceso de integración Centroamericana del Triángulo Norte: Escenarios de riesgo en la matriz de exportación" (Central American Integration Process of the Northern Triangle: Risk Scenarios in the Export Matrix), prepared by the Asociación de Investigación de Estudios Sociales (Asíes), garment making is another activity that could be affected in the coming years.
Last year, the main regional crop sold abroad was coffee, with $2.671 million, followed by banana, with $2.594 million, pineapple, with $1.097 million and sugar, with $722 million.
Data from the Trade Intelligence Unit at CentralamericaData:
The main coffee export destinations were the U.S., Germany, Belgium, Italy, Japan and Canada, which together represent 70% of the volume exported by the region, equivalent to approximately $2,050 million. [GRAFICA caption="Click to interact with the graphic"]
By analyzing the behavior of the global market, it is established that Holland, Switzerland and Germany are willing to pay a higher price for a distinctive cup of coffee.
Between the Committee of Distinguished Coffees of the guild of exporters of Guatemala and the European Union, they carried out the study called "Trends and Opportunities of exportation of coffee with added value", in which the price of coffee in 77 cities of the world was compared.
Because of a drop in the price of the grain, during the first eight months of the 2018-2019 harvest Honduran coffee sales abroad totaled $673 million, 14% less than what was reported in the same period of the 2017-2018 cycle.
According to figures from the Honduran Coffee Institute (Ihcafe) between the first eight months of the 2017-2018 harvest, which runs from October 2017 to May 2018, and the same period of the 2018-2019 season, sales and exported volume decreased from $786 million to $673 million, and from 6.4 million to 6.3 million, respectively.
In order to sell the grain at better prices, Salvadoran coffee growers are interested in exporting to countries such as Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay.
According to directors of the Salvadoran Coffee Council, South American countries are potential markets for the grain produced in El Salvador, since the consumption of specialty coffees is increasing.
The disease has decreased considerably in recent years, as between 2014 and October 2018 the portion of the coffee plantation affected in El Salvador decreased from 38% to 10%.
According to monthly monitoring by the National Center for Agricultural and Forestry Technology (CENTA), the country's coffee plantation, which has been one of the most affected by the disease in the region, has considerably reduced the presence of rust.
With a few weeks to go before the end of the 2017/18 agricultural cycle, entrepreneurs in the sector project that production will amount to 1 million hundredweight less than initially expected.
In a complicated context, with international prices at record lows and rising local production costs, Honduras is projecting less grain production for this cycle.
In Guatemala the union of producers has stated that a reduction in international prices is affecting the sector, which is already facing difficulties in covering production costs.
The National Coffee Association attributes the problem to international consortia, which may be exerting further downward pressure on grain prices.They warn that this situation will have a strong impact on the national economy, because with current prices, producers are not even able to cover their costs.
Prices for all coffee groups fell in July 2018, though the largest month-on month decrease occurred for Brazilian Naturals, which declined by 4% to 110.54 US cents/lb.
From the monthly report by the ICO:
In July 2018, the ICO composite indicator price decreased by 2.9% to an average of 107.20 US cents/lb, which is the lowest monthly average for July since 2007, when the monthly composite indicator reached 106.20 US cents/lb.
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