TEGUCIGALPA: Coffee exports from Honduras, Central America's top producer, plunged 62 percent in August from the same month last year due to damage caused by the tree-killing fungus roya, the country's national coffee institute, IHCAFE, said on Monday.
Honduras exported 149,434 60-kilogram bags, IHCAFE said, down from 393,010 bags in the same month last year. IHCAFE said coffee shipments during the first 11 months of the 2012-13 harvesting season totaled 4.3 million bags, down 18.5 percent from the same 11-month period during the 2011-12 season.
"The freefall in Honduran coffee exports will continue in September," said Miguel Pon, head of the Honduran coffee exporter's association. "The farms hit by roya have been hit pretty hard."
Central America's major coffee-producing countries are all grappling with the spread of roya, or coffee leaf rust, which is expected to reduce production by 16 percent during the current season.
The coffee season in Central America and Mexico, which together produce more than one-fifth of the world's arabica beans, runs from October through September.
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