A growing number of farmers in Latin American nations renowned for their high-quality arabica coffee are starting to plant cheaper robusta – a crop still frowned upon or even outlawed in some countries. In locales such as Colombia and Costa Rica, many in the industry have feared the low-brow bean will spoil their reputation as suppliers of the world’s best coffee. Costa Rica bans robusta farming entirely, while coffee trade organizations in Colombia and elsewhere have historically discouraged it. But a growing number of Latin American farmers are warming up to the bitter bean as a cash crop. “It has good productivity and a good price,” said Evelio Matamoros, a farmer in Nicaragua who first planted robusta in 2010. Robusta “has better yields and it doesn’t need shade. That matters.” Robusta, which thrives at lower elevations, is typically processed into instant coffee or added to brewed blends as a cheaper ingredient. It’s also used to create the froth in some espressos. Coffee producers from Colombia to Guatemala are dedicating more land to robusta, and it has even spread to Panama, a small country renowned for growing exceptionally high-quality arabica beans that fetch steep premiums. In Nicaragua and Guatemala, the industry has targeted robusta expansions that would increase their combined harvest by five times, to about 540,000 60-kg bags. That would account for nearly 1 percent of global output, and bring supplies closer to North American coffee makers, cutting freight costs and shipping time compared to major robusta-growing nations such as… [Read full story]
Coffee growers in Vietnam, the world's largest producer of robusta beans, sold about 60 percent of the current season's crop, according to Volcafe, a unit of commodities trader ED&F Man Holdings Ltd. The country's harvest will rise to a record 22.1 million bags of coffee in the 2011-12 season begun in October from 20 million bags in the prior period, the trader estimated last month. Vietnamese farmers have held back beans as they wait for better prices after robusta slid 14 percent last year in London trading on NYSE Liffe. The premium paid by buyers of Vietnamese coffee to NYSE…... [read more]
Coffee growers seek bigger piece of the pie (30-06-2007) Farmer in Cha Pu District, Gia Lai Province, harvests coffee. Nearly 75 per cent of the country's coffee is planted in the Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) region, which is susceptible to droughts. —VNA/VNS Photo Sy Huynh DAK LAK — Coffee industry representatives meeting at a two-day seminar this week in the Central Highlands (Tay Nguyen) province of Dak Lak said better planning and modern processing technology would increase exports and improve bean quality. The industry needed to decrease cultivation areas and ensure there would be no oversupply, industry leaders said during…... [read more]
Workers sort through green robusta coffee beans for defects that cannot be removed mechanically, at the Highlands Coffee processing plant in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Photo: Bloomberg/Jeff Holt The coffee harvest in Vietnam, the top producer of robusta beans used by Nestle SA, is progressing at a slower-than-normal pace as low prices and high inventories from the previous crop discourage farmers from picking new fruit. Growers reaped about 2.5 percent of the 2015-16 crop in October, when harvesting began, according to the median of eight estimates from traders surveyed by Bloomberg. That compares with 4 percent a year ago…... [read more]
Coffee fruit in Vietnam are fully grown and of similar size to recent years after rains boosted crop development, according to producers in the biggest supplier of robusta beans used by Nestle SA. Farmers have applied two rounds of fertilizer and are preparing for a final round in two to three weeks before harvesting starts in October, they said. Production may drop 3 percent to 1.65 million metric tons in 2014-2015 from a record a year earlier, according to a Bloomberg survey this month. The start of the harvest may pressure futures in London which have climbed 17 percent this…... [read more]
VietNamNet Bridge – The worst drought in the last 30 years from El Nino troubled the local coffee growers in Dak Lak Province, but it also taught them the value of saving water. Coffee grower in Cu M’gar Communne Hoang Manh Thu places a plastic bottle upside down on the ground to check the water level. — Photo Ho Thuy Dak Lak, the biggest plantation of the robusta with 30 per cent contribution to Viet Nam’s economy, the second largest robusta export, has seen only a few spells of rain since last December, the country’s Coffee and Cocoa Association said…... [read more]
