TEGUCIGALPA/SAN JOSE: Coffee exports from Honduras slipped 4.3 percent and slid 55 percent in Costa Rica in October, the first month of the 2017-18 harvest season, officials in both countries said on Wednesday.
Honduras - Central America's top coffee producer - shipped 62,328 60-kg bags last month, down from 65,159 60-kg bags in the month a year earlier, according to data from national coffee institute IHCAFE.
Sales volumes were down "due to contractual obligations for shipments in October," said Miguel Pon, the head of the Honduran coffee exporters' association ADECAFEH.
Honduran coffee exports during the 2017-18 season are seen totaling 7.7 million 60-kg bags, said Adilson Avila, head of IHCAFE.
In Costa Rica, coffee exports fell to 14,321 60-kg bags in October after a tropical storm hit infrastructure and crops, said national coffee institute ICAFE.
Last month, Tropical Storm Nate killed 14 people in Costa Rica and left thousands without homes in what the government said was the worst natural disaster in decades.
Torrential rains hit thousands of hectares of crops in the country as well as bridges and highways leaving agricultural areas without access for days.
Costa Rica, known for its high quality beans, exported 1.11 million bags during the 2016-17 harvesting season, down 10.5 percent from the previous cycle.
The coffee season in Central America and Mexico, which together produce about a fifth of the world's arabica beans, runs from October through September.
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