Bogota, Aug 28 - Colombia's coffee production should start to return to normal around October, but will still fall to around 10.3 million 60-kilogram bags for the year, the national coffee federation said on Friday.
The National Federation of Coffee Growers had previously forecast 2009 year production at 11 million to 11.5 million bags as rains, lower fertilization and a crop renovation program temporarily reduced output in the world's No. 3 exporter.
Output for the year is now estimated at around 10.3 million after production begins to normalize in October, the federation said in a statement.
"With the weather, the flowering registered in May and July, the return of 70,000 additional hectares in the renovation program and the good levels of fertilization, production should start to normalize from October," it said.
The renovation program replaces aging coffee trees with new more productive ones, but temporarily reduces output while the younger trees begin production.
Colombian coffee exports for July fell 32 percent to 608,000 bags compared with a year earlier while production slumped 35 percent to 582,000 bags, the federation said.
Colombia, the world's top exporter of top-quality washed arabica beans, says the renovation program will help achieve its target of 17 million bags by 2014. Last year the Andean country produced 11.4 million bags of coffee.