Colombia coffee growers seek government aid as prices languish

BOGOTA: Colombia's coffee federation called urgently on Wednesday for the government to make structural changes to help coffee farmers in the face of low international prices.

Prices have hovered close to $1 per pound on the New York market so far in 2019, leaving farmers struggling to pay debts and afford fertilizer and new trees.

The federation repeatedly asked for government aid in 2018 amid low prices, and the country eventually spent at least $13.5 million to fund tree replacements.

"The committee asks the national government to work immediately, hand-in-hand with the federation, to find structural solutions to the difficult situation that coffee-growers are living through," the federation's board of directors said in a statement.

"The country's coffee-growers are especially worried about the low prices they are getting because 45 percent of the national harvest is collected in the first half of the year," it added.

The government should subsidize farmers, incentivize tree renovation and help with fertilization, the statement said, while coffee buyers internationally need to commit to paying farmers more.

Internal prices have fallen 4.2 percent in the first two months of the year, the federation said.

The massive size of the Brazilian coffee crop helped push prices to a 13-year low last September. Prices have continued to languish near those levels, which are far below the cost of production in many countries.

Colombia's coffee crop will recover this year as a mild El Nino weather phenomenon aids flowering, the head of the federation said this month.

Colombia produced 13.6 million 60-kg bags of washed arabica in 2018, down 4.5 percent from the year before as growers struggled with heavy rains and dismal prices.

Half a million Colombian families make a living growing coffee.