Peruvian exports are likely to drop this year because of shipping bottlenecks while output may suffer next year from increasing costs, in particular fertilizer, a growers’ group told Bloomberg. Shipments may slide to 3.25 million bags in 2021 from 3.6 million last year, said Lorenzo Castillo, General Manager of the National Coffee Board.
Castillo said shipments are delayed by about three months, and shipping companies that have big deals with large trading houses tend to give priority to them. However, he said production rose 3.3 percent this year to about 4.1 million bags, and could repeat that next year, depending on rains and input application
He said the cost for urea tripled to $60 per 50 kg/bag, and those imports are behind also about three months amid tight supplies in China. “So far, flowering has been good and weather mostly favorable; the problem is the high fertilizer cost,” Castillo added.
He said most of the crop is grown at 1,200 meters above sea level or more, and climate change, with volatile weather and temperatures, has made disease outbreaks more common, making fertilizer more necessary. He said the coffee area planted has slid to 380,000 hectares from peak of 425,000 in 2012 after prolonged low prices pushed some farmers to switch crops, including to coca, the raw material for cocaine.