Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/491377
44 STiR tea & coffee industry international / Issue 2, 2015 (April/May) Likewise, Costa Rican production plummeted from 1.38 million sacks in 2011-12 to roughly 500,000 bags in 2013-14. In 2011-12, some 45% of Guatemala's coffee exports went to the United States. Another 27% was shipped to Europe, 16% to Asia and 8% to Canada. "I think one of our best chances will come from renewing the oldest plantations, so that younger, more vigorous plants will take the fight against roya, and not old and weak ones," Ligorría explained. "That requires a lot of investment and a longer period of time, since you cannot renew all coffee zones at once." Despite the crisis, Ligorría said the 2014-15 season is likely to show a slight im- provement to 4.2 million quintales ($552,000), thanks to new plantings as well as the pruning of older coffee trees that are starting to produce. "On the income side, we think we will have a decrease, since last year's average price was around $2.10 per pound and today, prices are $1.70 per pound," the ambas- sador told us. "Remember that the coffee sector is Guatemala's biggest employer, and that 70% of the cost of coffee comes from labor. Therefore, lower prices mean less ability to fertilize, and thus less crop to be harvested at the end of the year." Volume wise, Guatemalan coffee reached its peak in 2011-12, when its farmers produced 4.8 million quintales worth $986 million ($630 million due to a dramatic in- crease in U.S currency). The year before that, 2010-11, volume was slightly less, at 4.7 million quintales, but thanks to high prices those beans generated a record $1.14 billion in foreign exchange. Pricewise, the worst season was 2005-06, when coffee brought in only $463.4 million. billion in Central American crop losses; in Guate- mala alone, some 100,000 jobs have disappeared as a result. At the same time, Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina has authorized a 5% increase in the national minimum wage, that became effective in January. Since 70% of the cost of coffee is labor, said Medina, that automatically pushes costs up by 3.5%. Coffee leaf rust Medina said Guatemala and neighboring Hon- duras have controlled coffee rust considerably better than Central America's two other leading coffee producers, El Salvador and Costa Rica. In the case of El Salvador, production fell from 1.9 million 60-kilogram sacks in the 2010-11 season to 500,000 bags in 2013-14. Anacafé says the extent to which coffee can re- cover depends largely on growers being able to get proper financing. But that in itself has become a bureaucratic nightmare. Medina said the government last year approved a funding mechanism that was aimed at injecting $100 million into the Guatemalan coffee sector. Of that total, $52 million was in the form of loans at interest rates of between 8% and 11%. However, he said, "people weren't taking ad- vantage of the program because the rates were too high, and because it was supposed to finish in 2016. Nobody in the coffee sector is going to take out a high-interest loan that you have to pay back in two or three years." Following intervention from Anacafé, the pro- gram was extended to 2026 and interest rates were slashed to 2% for small producers and 3% for me- Bags of R. Dalton gourmet coffee brands displayed at Finca Filadelfia, just outside Antigua in the department of Huehuetenango. Coffee tasters check the quality of coffee beans at Finca El Injerto