Colombia’s Federation of Coffee Growers hopes to produce 9.5 million bags in 2011 facing challenges from the rainy season and fungi.
According to Luis Genaro Muñoz, head of the Federation of Coffee Growers, the association aims to produce between 9 million to 9.5 million 132 pound bags in 2011.
The association estimated the 2010 production at close to 9 million bags, 1 million shy of their goal, due to the harsh rainy seasons the coffee region had experienced over the last couple years.
Conditions of the severe rainy season helped spread the fungus, “roya” throughout parts of the coffee region cutting the estimated 2010 production by 10%, a loss of about $275,000 (500 million COP).
To guard against the affects of the fungus on plantations, the federation is contemplating fumigating 153,000 acres of recoverable crops.
The heavy rains also affected pollination and flooded crops leading to a 19% reduction in coffee production in April compared to the same month last year.
Historically, annual coffee production in Colombia is around 10 million bags (660,000 tons) but with the past two crops damaged by the rainy season, the country has averaged about 7.5 million bags (495,000 tons) per year, according to Chief Commercial Officer for the federation, Andres Valencia.