By Luis Jaime Acosta
By Luis Jaime Acosta
BOGOTA, March 25 (Reuters) – Maintaining manufacturing and harvesting regardless of heavy rains are high challenges for coffee-growers in Colombia this yr, the espresso federation mentioned on Thursday, including that producers are additionally working to keep up their earnings and keep away from COVID-19 infections.
Colombia, the world’s high producer of washed arabica, reached an output of 13.9 million 60-kg baggage of espresso final yr, an annual fall of 6%.
“We should dwell with the problem of COVID-19, attempt to handle it, proceed our prevention marketing campaign, help vaccination plans, that’s the large problem we could have,” federation president Roberto Velez mentioned throughout a digital press convention.
Colombia has administered 1.38 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines thus far and recorded 2.35 million instances and greater than 62,000 deaths.
“The second problem has to do with the portions produced, given we now have had climate that’s not favorable to espresso manufacturing,” Velez mentioned, referring to heavy rains in latest weeks.
Guaranteeing revenue for coffee-growers can also be a problem, Velez mentioned. The New York market value KCc1 has been about $1.30 per lb of espresso this yr amid a weak Colombian peso, whereas a high quality premium has hovered between 45 and 50 cents per lb.
A proposed tax reform set to go to Congress subsequent month can be worrying if it raises duties on fertilizers, Velez mentioned.
“Taxes on fertilizers can be very severe for the agricultural sector, not simply the espresso sector.”
The federation predicts farmers will harvest about 6 million baggage within the first half of this yr and 14 million throughout all of 2021.
About 550,000 Colombian households make their dwelling rising espresso. The Andean nation is the third-largest espresso producer general after Brazil and Vietnam.
(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb Enhancing by Marguerita Choy)
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