Latin America’s November coffee sales plummet

Combined exports from nine Latin American producers of fine coffee dropped 39 percent in November compared with the same month last year, Guatemala´s National Coffee Association (Anacafé) said.

The association said El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and the Dominican Republic finished November with exports of 1,245,272 bags weighing 60 kilograms each – down from 2,040,983 bags exported in November 2008.

Anacafé´s statistics did not include Brazil, the world´s leading coffee exporter. However, Brazil´s agriculture ministry has signaled that high rains and temperatures could cut into the country´s coffee output, according to the newswire Bloomberg.

Despite the decline in coffee exports, at one time Costa Rica´s chief export product, Costa Rica saw signs of economic recovery in November as overall exports rose 2.8 percent above the figure in November 2008.