Eventual closures as a result of the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 would be traumatic for consumption and world coffee industrysaid on Tuesday the main coffee leader of Colombia announcing a drop in the South American country’s harvest in 2021 due to heavy rains.
While the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that any increase in infections due to new mutation could have serious consequences, countries like Japan closed their borders to foreigners and the president of USA, Joe Biden, urged wearing face masks indoors and in public places.
“The fear is once again the closure of economies and that we return once again to a world where coffee has space only in household consumption,” the manager of the company said in an interview with Reuters. National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia, Roberto Velez.
“Any closure causes trauma to the consumption of coffee in general,” he said, noting that the first restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic They caused an increase in demand for a quality product despite the drop in consumption.
The leader announced that Colombia, the world’s leading producer of washed arabica, caught up with coffee shipments after a delay of up to a million bags due to road blocks during social protests in the South American country between the end of April and mid-June.
“We are about to enter December and all shipments are up to date and all payments to exporters as well,” said Vélez in his office in the north of Bogotá, before starting the National Congress of Coffee Growers to analyze the achievements of the year and the challenges of 2022 that will seek to maintain the quality and sustainability of the sector.
The leader said that despite complaints about delays, the situation was resolved with a visit he made to the United States to offer excuses for non-compliance in which some customers told him that “Colombian coffee has no replacement” and that there is space to keep growing.
Lower production due to rains
Due to the phenomenon of The girl, the country is currently facing a strong rainy season that delays the flowering and production of coffee trees, as happened in the first semester, which will cause a drop in the harvest to levels between 13 million and 13.5 million bags, said Vélez .
Colombia recorded a harvest of 13.9 million 60-kilo bags in 2020, 6% below the 14.8 million bags in 2019 when it achieved the highest production in 27 years.
“Between 13 and 13.5 million, I think that will be the close of the 2021 calendar year, which is far below, if you look at the closings of the last six years, the average was 14.1 and 14.2 million bags, we are talking of almost a million bags less, “said Vélez, who assured that exports will remain between 12 million and 12.5 million bags.
Colombian coffee exports reached 12.5 million bags in 2020.
Although world coffee prices soared this year, mainly due to adverse weather in Brazil, the manager of the federation of coffee growers assured that Colombia is not experiencing a “bonanza” but rather a good moment backed by a quality premium and devaluation. of the peso against the dollar.
In the NYSE the pound of Colombian coffee closed on Monday at 2.33 dollars per pound.
Vélez predicted a global supply deficit of about 10 million bags in 2022, mainly due to Brazil’s climate problems, while prices are likely to remain at similar levels to this year.
The leader of the coffee growers union ruled out an increase in the area planted in Colombia to meet the supply deficit and the greater demand, while ensuring that the long-term commitment is to maintain the quality and productivity of 19 bags per hectare.
Colombia, the third world coffee producer after Brazil and Vietnam, has 840,000 hectares cultivated with coffee plantations and around 500,000 families depend on this activity.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx