June 5 - Colombia's coffee output should be around 11 million to 11.5 million 60-kg bags this year as better weather and increased fertilizer use helps production recover, the national coffee federation said on Thursday.
Colombia, the world's No. 3 coffee producer and top supplier of mild arabica beans, has seen its output slashed by bad weather at the end of last year and by a temporary program to replace aging trees with new ones.
"The weather is much better and this is not just a few weeks of sun. We've had four months where rainfall has been below the historic average," Gabriel Silva, federation director, told lawmakers in a forum on the coffee industry.
"That makes us believe that the results of production are going to be much better," he said.
Silva recently said production could have fallen to 10.5 million bags this year at the low end of forecasts.
He said fertilizer use had increased sharply as prices had fallen alongside fuel costs. The federation also expects new trees planted as part of the rejuvenation program to come into production in the second half of this year.
Shortages of Colombia's arabicas have pushed up differentials for the beans, but the federation says it is still fulfilling its international contracts though some exports have been delayed.
Colombia reported recently its output fell 61 percent in April to 345,000 bags while exports dropped 40 percent to 550,000 bags compared with the same month a year ago. The top export group recently said Colombia could struggle to reach the first-half 2009 target of 4.5 million bags in output.
