Colombia coffee output up 5pc in April, exports up 3pc

BOGOTA: Colombia produced 874,000 60-kg bags of washed arabica coffee in April, up 5 percent from the same month a year earlier, the National Coffee Growers' Federation said on Thursday.

Despite the uptick, production for the year so far is down 4 percent from the first four months of last year, the federation said in a statement. The group has asked the government for aid for coffee-growers amid predictions for declining output in the first half of 2018.

Exports for April grew 3 percent to 920,992 bags.

The Andean country produced 14.2 million bags in 2017.