Guatemala’s Anacafe Cuts Coffee-Export Forecast on Plant Fungus

2013-01-07 15:11:39.435 GMT
 

By Marvin G. Perez

     Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) — In yr started Oct. 1, exportable production will be 3.143m bags, down from 3.5m bags estimated last month, Nils Leporowski, the president of the National Coffee Association, or Anacafe, said today in a telephone interview from Guatemala City.

  * Coffee leaf rust has been worse than expected and is present in 70% of plantings
  * Disease may reduce the crop in the yr starting Oct. 1, 2013, by as much as 40%
  * NOTE: a bag weighs 60 kgs, or 132 lb
  * NOTE: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras and Peru also battling fungus, which thrives amid higher temperatures and moisture