Comayagua goes again for the first place in the production of aromatic grain at the level of 15 departments where the 2020/2021 coffee cycle takes place, in accordance with goals set by producers, despite the impact of the pandemic, shortage of cutters, poor state of roads and rust fungus.
The president of the Association of Coffee Producers of Honduras (Aprocaféh) in that sector of the country, Wilmer Mendoza, indicated that the cutting of grain is progressing by 80 percent, a percentage similar to what other sites report, especially those located at lowest height in the country.
The source acknowledged that they face complications with hiring labor, access to farms due to the damage caused by recent tropical storms and the disease of rust, a phytoparasitic fungus of the coffee tree.
“Comayagua is one of the most affected by rust, almost 20 percent of the park is affected, this affects the harvest, but we hope that the government will support us,” he added. Additionally, there was a loss of quintals as an effect of the tropical storms that struck last November.
COFFEE BONUS
Mendoza applauded the support they received the previous year with the Coffee Bonus for fertilization in support of small and medium producers and they hope that it will be resumed in 2021 and include rust control.
“We are harvesting the grain somewhat dry, that reduces profits, but we maintain the same trend of being number 1 in production, the rust is not only in Comayagua, but throughout the country,” concluded the leader of the producers.
The department of Comayagua was consolidated as the first producer of aromatic grain during the 2019/2020 harvest that ended on October 1, according to the Honduran Coffee Institute (Ihcafé).
The area registers 13,081 producers and a harvest of 1,234,698 quintals of coffee, that represents a productivity of 19.7 bags per apple.
The harvest that ended on September 30, closed with the export of 7.17 million bags of 46 kilograms, which generated foreign exchange for 896 million dollars with an average export price of 124.96 dollars per quintal.
Considering that price, Comayagua contributed 154 million 287 thousand 862 dollars, an economic spill of more than 3.7 billion lempiras for the economy of the central zone of Honduras.
DATA
Honduras has exported 1.3 million quintals of coffee in the context of a programmed goal of 7.2 million quintals. The export price rose to an average of $ 139, however, today it stands at $ 120. The expectation at the end of the season is to exceed 900 million dollars, a working capital of 22 billion lempiras for the benefit of 110 thousand families that depend on this activity, which is the main source of foreign exchange in the agro-industrial sector. Honduran coffee is bought by 55 countries, 65 percent is sold in Europe, 24 percent in North America, especially the United States, and 6 percent in Asia.
–
