Costa Rica Coffee-Crop Forecast Cut by Icafe Amid Plant Fungus

2013-01-04 17:05:37.370 GMT
 

By Marvin G. Perez and Isis Almeida

Jan. 4 (Bloomberg) — Production will drop to 1.648m bags in the year that began Oct. 1, down 9.8% from yr earlier, the Costa Rican Coffee Institute, or Icafe, said in e-mailed statement.

  * Icafe’s previous estimate was 1.714m bags
  * Crop hurt by coffee leaf rust, a fungus that attacks foliage
  * Disease may erode output even more in 2013-2014 harvest as farmers prune infected plant limbs, Jorge Ramirez, the technical manager at Cicafe, Icafe’s research arm, said today in telephone interview from San Pedro de Barva
  * NOTE: Fungus also affecting crops in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico
  * NOTE: A bag of weighs 60 kg, or 132 lbs