COLOMBIA – Fedecafe cuts estimate for calendar year 2009 to 9.5 million bags

MILAN – Colombia’s National Federation of Coffee Growers, or Fedecafe, has revised down for the third time this year its production forecast for calendar year 2009 to 9.5 million bags. Fedecafe General Manager Luis Genaro said it had become clear that hopes for a speedy recovery in the new main 2009-10 harvest weren’t going to materialize.

“The year 2009 has been a particularly difficult and atypical year for us as far as coffee is concerned,” he said speaking to local reporters in the central coffee region of Quindio.

Genaro said that irregular weather and heavy rains damaged both flowering and picking.

Production was affected also by a reduced use of fertilizer and the intensive replanting program presently underway.