Antioquia Expects Reduction in 2023 coffee Harvest, Production Set to Increase in 2024
Antioquia Expects Reduction in 2023 coffee Harvest, Production Set to Increase in 2024
Coffee Network (Bogota)- Colombia’s second largest coffee- producing region, Antioquia, expects a reduction in the 2023 coffee output over the 2022 hit by torrential rains, Alvaro Jaramillo, director of the Antioquia’s coffee committee told Coffee Network.
Antioquia is expected to produce 1.7 million bags of 60-kg in the calendar year 2023, down from the 2 million produced in 2022 and 2.2 million in 2021, Jaramillo told Coffee Network on the sidelines of the 92th coffee congress.
Antioquia contributes with 14.8% of the country’s total coffee output.
Antioquia reported good flowerings earlier this year, but lack of rainfall prevented the proper development of the grain, contributing to be one of the reasons for the drop.
Antioquia, which has 111,000 coffee hectares, is expected to produce around 1.3 million bags of 60-kg in the second half, considered its main harvest, and around 500,000 bags in the first half of 2023.
“We had expected a production of around 700,000 bags in the first half but the rains of last year affected the output resulting in 500,000 bags,” he said.
Coffee picking has been spread out throughout the second half of the year, and output is expected to get extended until January, he added.
As the harvest of the second half of the year did not concrete in certain months, coffee farmers have been forced to maintain pickers along several months.
But the 2024 is projected to report an improved production as strong luminosity intertwining with some rainfall will likely lead to an improved production in the first half of next year. Antioquia has reported several good flowerings in the second half of this year that will led to improved harvest in the first half of 2024.
Jaramillo expects that the coffee output in his province will recover to around 2 million bags in 2024. But he is cautious with the effect El Niño could have on the harvest.
“Too much water stress is also bad. We need sun mixed with rainfall,” he added.
DE Los Andes Cooperative
The liquidator of the De los Andes coffee cooperative is trying to reverse the liquidation of the cooperative, and move to a restructuring process. But the reversion requires the approval of the main creditors the country’s largest bank Bancolombia and the Davivienda bank.
The process has been led by the regulator Supersolidaria, the country’s comptroller, the attorney office as well as the liquidator.
“The liquidator has considered feasible to recover the Los Andes cooperative,” he noted.
In March 2022, the Colombian coffee cooperative De los Andes, one of the country’s largest coffee cooperatives, was ordered to be liquidated due to low coffee volume of sales and the non-compliance with future coffee deliveries, which derailed earlier plans to save the cooperative, according to a report by the country’s Superintendency of the Solidarity Economy (Supersolidaria)
In other news, Jaramillo said the department has the potential to expand coffee hectares. The areas are located in the north, east and west of the department.
“All the global Arabica coffee is consumed. If Colombia manages to produce 16 million bags, we will have buyers for that coffee,” he added.
Jaramillo sees difficult that Colombia will manage to renovate 20% of its coffee hectares in 2024. He said renovating 14%-15% of the total 850,000 hectares is still a challenge.
Meanwhile, coffee growers in Antioquia are experiencing increased extortion. Illegal groups are demanding COP50,000 pesos per load of 125kg of parchment coffee sold.
By Diana Delgado
