Mexico City, Oct. 15 - Guatemalan coffee exports in the now completed 2006-07 crop cycle ended up 12% on the year to 3,745,893 60-kilogram bags, Guatemala's National Coffee Association, or Anacafe, said Monday.
Releasing final figures for the 2006-07 crop cycle the closing numbers were slightly higher than preliminary figures, which set exports from the 2006-07 cycle (October-September) up 10% at 3.7 million bags, an Anacafe official said.
Guatemalan exports in September, the last and 12th month of the 2006-07 cycle, rose 23% to reach 243,085 bags from shipments of 197,120 bags in September 2006, Anacafe said.
The 2006-07 export total is one of the highest ever on record for Guatemala, and compares to exports in the 2005-06 harvest of 3,350,274 million bags, Anacafe said in a report, a copy of which was obtained by Dow Jones Newswires.
The figures were higher than the forecast for Guatemalan coffee exports in the 2006-07 harvest to jump 7.5% on shipments from the previous harvest to reach 3.6 million 60-kilogram bags.
Guatemala, on average, produces an additional 400,000 bags of lower-quality coffee, which is used for local consumption. Anacafe estimates local production based on the export volume plus the figure for local consumption.
Figures for both the current crop and past crop cycles are revised on a monthly basis, but rarely lead to significant changes in the overall indicators.