The director of Colombia’s National Federation of Coffee Growers said the industry will “work without rest,” even though coffee exports returned to normal levels in January after a sharp dip, business newspaper Portafolio reported Thursday.
Statistics given to Portfolio show the Colombian coffee industry, which was hit by the heavy rainy season and fungus outbreaks, produced 908,000 60-kilogram bags of coffee in the first month of 2011, and of that exported 815,000 bags.
The production represents a significant increase from the same month in 2010 and 2009, when the totals were 541,000 and 876,000 respectively.
“While January returned to historical levels, we cannot sit with folded hands. This year, with the support of the government, we will work without rest, to recover the production, control the fungi and renew the coffee parks by planting resistant varieties,” Portafolio quoted director Luis Genaro Muñoz as saying.
Muñoz said that the production levels in January were due to favorable weather for coffee growing and said hopes that the alternating sunshine and light rainfall were persist throughout the season, reports the newspaper.