Honduras Says Coffee Exports are Set to Drop 9% Because of El Nino, Coup

Coffee exports from Honduras, set to become the world’s sixth-biggest exporter, will be about 9 percent lower than forecast this crop year because of losses from bad weather and a coup, an industry association said.

The country will export 4.2 million 46-kilogram bags in the crop year ending next month, Mario Ordonez, technical manager at the Honduran Coffee Institute in Tegucigalpa, said in a telephone interview. The Institute had projected exports of 4.6 million bags this year, from 4.4 million a year earlier.

El Nino damaged crops by triggering dry spells in some coffee-producing regions and earlier-than-expected rains and cold temperatures in others, said Ordonez. Landslides and flooding from Tropical Storm Agatha in May damaged crops and roads used for shipping coffee,

Months of protests and highway blockades in the wake of the coup that ousted leader Manuel Zelaya in June of 2009 also caused shipping delays that reduced exports, he said.

The institute last October projected exports of 4.6 million bags for this crop year, up from 4.4 million bags in the 2008- 2009 crop year, Ordonez said. Exports will likely grow next crop year as the country’s political crisis calms and credit is expanded for growers.

Honduras is set to overtake Guatemala this crop year to become the world’s sixth-largest coffee producer, according to statistics released last month on the website of London-based International Coffee Organisation. Guatemala plantations were damaged by rains and the May eruption of the Pacaya volcano.

To contact the reporter on this story: Blake Schmidt in Granada, Nicaragua at bschmidt16@bloomberg.net

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