Coffee News
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Exports Fall and Low Prices for Ivorian Coffee - July 2001
Coffee exports from Ivory Coast have fallen by more than a third this season following a sharp decline in the crop as farmers stop cultivation due to low world prices. Official data from Abidjan and San Pedro ports indicates that exports of coffee beans from Ivory Coast totalled 28,306 tonnes in May. This represents a fall of 36.4% on the same month last year and is due to a poor 2000/01 harvest. The total 2000/01 crop in Ivory Coast, which is Africa's top coffee producer, is forecast at 220,000 tonnes - well below the 1999/00 bumper season when exports were above 380,000 tonnes.
Farmers were receiving as little as CFAFr200 (25¢) a kg during the current season compared to the 1999/00 price of between CFAFr350 and CFAFr400. Buyers said that the low export margins encouraged some farmers to hoard beans and this resulted in the sharp fall of exports. However, soluble coffee exports were up at 8,937 tonnes by the end of May, from 7,209 tonnes last season.
Falling earnings - April 2001
The world's coffee market has slumped in the past 12 months, with one kilo of coffee now fetching just 64 cents. That's more than 40% down on last year's price of $1.12.
ICO calls for African coffee aid - March 2001
The executive director of the International Coffee Organisation (ICO) has called for urgent measures for African farmers to gain access to credit facilities to fund expansion.
At a workshop on African coffee in Nairobi, Celsius Lodder, the ICO chief, said that African coffee production has dropped rapidly to a mere 17m bags a year, compared with an average of 26m bags recorded during the 1980s. Africa is currently producing a mere 15% of total world production compared with 27% in the 1980s.
In a speech delivered by Denis Seudieu, the ICO's chief economist, Mr Lodder said:
"Coffee producers in Africa are among the poorest, so the situation may wipe out a considerable number of small farmers and lead to a loss of market share of Africa's primary commodities. The situation of the coffee economy in 2001 is one where the market perceives substantially high levels of supply relative to demand.
"This situation has led to prices at historically low levels, with an obvious adverse impact on countries dependent on coffee as source of export earning, employment, and income."
The situation has increased poverty in Africa where 39 out the 49 countries recorded as the poorest countries in the world, actually relied heavily on coffee as source of foreign exchange earnings.
The Nairobi workshop, which was attended by representatives from eight producers, formulated a structured credit scheme for small-scale farmers, which the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) will look at.
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