San Jose, Costa Rica, July 3 - El Salvador estimates its 2008/09 coffee harvest will fall 4 percent compared to the previous cycle due to the biannual nature of the crop, the country's coffee council said on Thursday.
El Salvador sees production at 1.43 million 60-kg bags versus the 1.49 million bags of coffee output in the 2007/08 season which started on Oct. 1, council head Ricardo Espitia told Reuters in a telephone interview.
"We think that it's a good result considering we had a 21 percent increase this harvest," said Espitia.
El Salvador produced 1.23 million bags in the 2006/07 growing year.
Espitia said the weather has been normal so far this year, despite fears that windstorms earlier in the year could have damaged flowering.