Coffee production in Colombia increased by 10% in February, compared to the figures for the same month in 2022, reaching 1,025,000 60-kilo bags, the National Federation of Coffee Growers (FNC) reported on Monday.
“After the prolonged phenomenon of La Niña, the figure begins to show recovery in the volume of the harvest,” the agency said in a statement.
La Niña is associated with a large-scale cooling of the surface temperatures of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, which together with changes in the tropical atmospheric circulation often causes changes in climate opposite to El Niño, a warmer phase.
Although between January and February of this year there was a 5% increase in grain production, the Federation pointed out that, between March 2022 and February 2023, it suffered an 8% drop with 11.2 million bags.
When breaking down the figures so far this coffee year (October 2022 to February 2023), the FNC also noted a 9% reduction, with a production of more than 4.8 million bags, compared to the 5.3 million recorded in the previous period.
Regarding the export figures for February, the Federation indicated that these decreased 6%, with 928,000 60-kilo bags of coffee.
Along the same lines, the figures for 2023 suggest that, with 1.8 million bags exported, these were also reduced by 13% compared to the same period in 2022.
The Federation also pointed out that, in the last 12 months, exports fell by 8%, with almost 11.2 million bags, compared to the 12.1 million exported a year earlier.
Colombia is the world’s largest producer of mild washed Arabica coffee and some 560,000 peasant families earn a living from its activity.