Burundi Coffee Production May Drop 13% Amid Decreased Plantings

Coffee production in Burundi, which relies on the crop to generate more than half its foreign-exchange earnings, may drop 13 percent this year amid declining plantings, the Burundi Coffee Regulatory Agency said.

Output may fall to 21,000 metric tons from 24,000 tons in 2010, Pascal Girukwishaka, technical director of the Bujumbura-based agency, said in an interview yesterday. Production is declining amid a growing scarcity of land for the country’s increasing population and a lack of labor to help farm the beans as people leave rural areas to seek employment in the nation’s cities, he said.