MANAGUA – Coffee exports are up 46.6% during the first two months of the 2007-08 harvest in relation to the same period last year, according to the government’s Export Processing Center (Cetrex).
Coffee exports from last October and November, the first two months of this year’s harvest, totaled $23.4 million, compared to $15.9 million from October and November of the 2006-07 harvest, according to Cetrex reports.
The increase is being attributed to an increase in international coffee prices as well as greater productivity.
The price of a quintal of coffee harvested during the first two months of this year’s harvest reached an average price of $121.3, compared to an average price of $99 last year. A quintal equals 100 pounds.
The volume of coffee exports is also up to 192,833 quintales in October and November, compared to 161,034 during the same period the year before.
Based on the early statistics, the government predicts that the 2007-08 coffee harvest will bring in $212 million from 1.8 million quintales of coffee produced compared to last year’s $177 million from 1.5 million quintales.
Coffee is Nicaragua’s principal agricultural export product.
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