CentAm, Colombia, Peru coffee exports up 7.3pc in January

GUATEMALA CITY: Coffee exports from Central America, Colombia, Peru and the Dominican Republic jumped 7.3 percent in January compared to the same month a year earlier, totaling 2.18 million 60-kg bags in the month, data showed on Thursday.

Guatemala's coffee association Anacafe, which collates figures from the mostly arabica-growing region, said exports through the first four months of the 2012-13 harvesting season totaled 8.21 million bags, up 11.9 percent compared to the same four-month period during the previous 2011-12 season.

Anacafe's coffee export totals for January do not include shipments from Mexico, the only country in the region that has yet to report January data.

Mexico and all of Central America's top five coffee-producing countries - home to more than one-fifth of the world's arabica crop - have confirmed outbreaks of the tree-killing roya fungus this season.

Earlier this week, Central American agriculture ministers said in a joint statement that roya, also known as leaf rust, is expected to cost the region's coffee industry $500 million in the current 2012-13 harvesting season.