Lima, Aug 8 - Peru coffee exports should fall by about 25 percent this year from 2006, a bigger drop than the 21 percent decline projected in May, the head of the country's coffee exporters chamber said Wednesday.
Last year, South America's third-largest coffee producer shipped slightly more than 5 million 46-kg bags of coffee.
A 25 percent drop this year would result in exports of around 3.8 million bags.
Luis Navarro, president of the Peruvian Chamber of Coffee and Cacao, said at a conference the decline in exports would mostly be caused by coffee's biannual crop cycle.
Peru's coffee exports last year were worth $514 million, an increase of 68 percent from 2005, making coffee the country's most lucrative agricultural product in terms of sales abroad. Last year, Peru exported 95 percent of its output.