Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
fight to survive and make coffee grow a profitable business for thousands of small producers will continue in 2021 due to the many problems that have hit the sector for several years, such as debt, low prices, and that for this harvest we add the lack of cutters to collect ripe fruit, damaged tertiary streets to access farms and with a reduced global demand.
At the beginning of the 2020-2021 harvest, the Honduran Coffee Institute (Ihcafé) estimated that production this season will reach 8.2 million quintals, however, for many experts in the sector, it will barely reach about 7.2 millions of quintals of the golden bean.
This is due to the problems that manufacturers have in obtaining milling cutters that have entered previous years. Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaraguato; But because of the COVID-19 pandemic, coffee growers have to pay L600 for a quick test for every person they want to hire for their farms, said Jorge Pinto, a representative of coffee growers in the west of the country.
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The manufacturer also pointed out that the passage of storms Eta and Iota severely affected the road infrastructure they had in the departments of Copán, Ocotepeque, Lempira, Santa Bárbara and Intibucá. “We went back 15 years ago, the tertiary roads are eExtremely damaged “, he commented.
Pinto highlighted the work of the National Coffee Fund, which began in December to restore access to farms. “Right now we are in the middle of cutting, we are at 80% of the capacity to allow coffee growing areas. We are now making a superhuman effort to get out of this problem. Coffee production had been estimated at 8.2 million, but we will not reach that production, daily reports a decrease in coffee due to lack of labor, because here in the West I cut with people from Guatemala “, he explained.
Dagoberto Suazo, President of La Central of Coffee Cooperatives of Honduras (La Central) stressed that the streets are being cleaned according to the plan executed between the government and the coffee organizations for harvesting.
Suazo pointed out that there are more than 250 machines operating in the 15 coffee-producing departments to reduce losses and be able to enter the exchange rate that the country needs in these times of crisis.
liability
Fredy Pastrana, a coffee producer and representative from the eastern part of the country, said the situation was dramatic. “We have been warning for years that the sector is not generating profit, the debts continue to grow: there are more than 63,000 producers which he owes to the bank “, he cried.
Pastrana criticized the “abandonment” of coffee institutions in terms of debt and the lack of support from the National Congress, because long ago they proposed a financing scheme for the benefit of low-interest coffee growers for 10 years and did not was taken into account by deputies.
He also indicated that the price for which coffee is sold in Honduras is much lower than in neighboring countries. “We have left the producers alone, who continue to harvest and borrow,” he said producer from El Paraíso. Finally, Pastrana asked the President of the Republic to hold an emergency meeting in order to respond to the producers in crisis.
Víctor Barahona, manager at National Central Cooperatives Limited (Uniocoop), He commented that part of the crisis begins with the few funds allocated to the agricultural sector in the general budget of the Republic. “If you review the budgets of the last 10 years of the Ministry of Agriculture and Growth (SAG), you will not find any support. The same L2,000 million was approved for agriculture. There is little investment in agriculture, in which food is produced and generates foreign exchange in exports, “he said.
Barahona said the issue of agriculture and coffee should have a policy change to improve the country’s productivity, as well as start improving the marketing of coffee on the international market, along with marketing experts looking for better prices for domestic coffee and producers.
Reduced demand
Miguel Pon, executive director at Honduras Coffee Exporters Association (Adecafeh) pointed out that coffee exports have fallen due to delays in coffee farms due to deterioration of roads in coffee communities, but in addition, they commented that there is something that alerts them and It is low demand internationally .
“It’s extremely difficult to be able to make coffee right now,” Pon warned.
The exporter stressed that this harvest will be complicated, because now the real impact of covid-19 will be felt.n Honduran coffee is growing. The executive director of Adecafeh indicated that, in reality, covid-19 did not have a big impact, but where this impact is felt is abroad due to the isolation measures that are giving back to Europe.
“We have to see what will happen to the global pandemic, the whole chain depends on it, it will be useless if the price of coffee is high if it cannot be placed. There is hope with the vaccines, but that will take time, “he said.
Regarding the destination of exports, Pon pointed out that so far the United States is the country that imports the most grain; In addition, Colombia also buys inferior quality Honduran coffee for brewing.
Finally, Pon expressed that we need to pay attention to the outbreaks that take place in the country, because people relax a lot and it is doubtful what will happen to the country in January and February if cases continue to rise.
In December last year, the price of coffee rose again, which motivated producers to harvest their crops, however, it is unknown whether this trend will continue.
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The keys to the crisis 1. Lack of cutters The fall in cereals is reported in many parts of the country, as producers have not been able to hire coffee cutters in neighboring countries as in previous years due to the high cost of this, as rapid tests have to be carried out. 2. Damage caused by the hurricane The passage of storms Eta and Iota through the national territory in November severely affected the tertiary roads to access the various farms in the 15 departments of the country, the eastern and western being the most affected by destruction. 3. Reduced demand Exporters pointed out that due to the global pandemic, international demand for coffee has fallen sharply, so the placement of Honduran coffee abroad has led to lower export figures. |