« We have no defaults at the moment and we won’t have defaults, » Andres Fernandez Acosta told Reuters in an interview during a trip to London. « Because of weather conditions there have been delays. » He added, « By June everything will be in place and we will have no problems meeting our commitments. » The minister was referring to recent talk in the international coffee market that Colombia, the top coffee exporter after Brazil and Vietnam, might struggle to meet its export commitments because of its shortage of arabicas.

« Colombia has never defaulted on its coffee shipments to Europe and the United States, » Fernandez Acosta said. Premiums for Colombia’s arabicas are skyrocketing as bad weather at the end of last year and a programme to replace old coffee trees with more productive plants have trimmed output. ICE July arabica coffee futures briefly touched an eight-month high of $1.3740 per lb in early trade on Wednesday, and were up 0.35 cent at $1.3680 per lb at 1118 GMT.

Fernandez Acosta forecast calendar 2009 Colombian coffee output would stand at 11.5 million 60-kg bags, up from 10.5 million in 2008, noting that favourable flowering conditions early this year augured for a pickup of output later in 2009. « The second half of 2008 was extremely humid and complicated weather that prevented flowering. That’s the real reason why we have a shortage of first-half (2009) production, » the minister said.

« When there are extremely humid conditions, it means they (flowers) will come out later. » He added, « In January and February (2009) we had very good climatic conditions in the centre and southwest, the main production cluster of the country. We had almost two months of extremely good weather. » Fernandez Acosta forecast that the value of Colombia’s 2009 coffee crop would rise some 20 percent to roughly $2.2 billion, as international coffee prices had increased due to tight supplies.

He said that buyers would continue to seek Colombian physical arabica coffee because of its high quality and the shortage of coffees on the world market. « People are loyal to Colombian origin coffee because of its quality, » the minister said. « I don’t think we’re going to have a problem of people shifting because there is a shortage not just in Colombia, but also in the rest of the world. »

Source : Guardian