Colombian Rain Hinders Coffee-Crop Rebound from 33-Year Low, Exporters Say

Rainfall in Colombia may hamper a recovery in coffee production from last year’s 33-year low, an exporters group said.

Persistent wet weather may deprive plants of sunlight and stunt growth of coffee beans in Colombia, the world’s largest arabica producer after Brazil, said Jorge Lozano, head of Colombia’s National Association of Coffee Exporters.

“It’s going to affect the harvest if it keeps raining like this,” he said yesterday in a telephone interview from Bogota. “The beans can’t grow without sun.”

Coffee has rallied 25 percent this year as investment funds bet on gains and global supplies lag behind demand, Lozano said. Above-average rain last year damaged plants, cutting Colombia’s 2009 crop by 32 percent and trimming the harvest in the first six months of this year.

Wet weather in recent weeks has swollen rivers and increased the risk of mudslides in parts of Colombia, according to the nation’s state-run Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies. Colombia may have “abundant” rainfall as of September because of the return of the weather pattern known as La Nina, the agency said in a statement on its website.

Arabica coffee for September delivery was unchanged at $1.6975 a pound at 11:35 a.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York.

Colombia exported about 500,000 bags of coffee in July, and production in August won’t be “very big,” Lozano said. Output will rise in September as farmers begin to harvest the year-end crop. Each bag weighs 60 kilograms (132 pounds).

To contact the reporter on this story: Heather Walsh in Bogota at hlwalsh@bloomberg.net

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