December 22, 2015

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) cut its estimate for Peru’s 2014/15 coffee crop by 1.1 million bags to a seven year low of 3.4 million bags because of widespread damage from the spread of rust. The lowered forecast will bring Peru from being the eighth largest coffee producer in the world to the eleventh. In October a state of emergency was declared in 11 regions of the country that are coordinating their efforts to fighting the spread of the fungus that causes defoliation, serious loss of production, and even tree death. Peru’s exports for 2014/15 are expected to fall by 900,000 bags to 3.2 million bags as opposed to the USDA’s June projection of an increase in exports of 200,000 bags. Even considering the downgrade to Peru’s production estimates, the USDA projects global coffee production to be 149.8 million bags – 1.1 million bags above its previous estimate, with end of season global stocks for 2014/15 being 36,405 bags, – a drop of 3.6 million bags year on year. As Peru’s output is downgraded, many other country’s production estimates have been raised. Top producer, Brazil, has had its production estimates for both robusta and Arabica increased, with robusta output forecast to be a record 17 million bags and Arabica output forecast to be 34.2 million bags.

Read the article

To receive relevant news stories with summaries provided by GAI Research & Insight, subscribe to Global AgDevelopments, our free weekly enhanced eNews service