ERA DORADA PARA EL CAFE

DJ Peru Jan 2009 Coffee Exports Up 42% To 179,658 Bags - JNC
Last update: 5:14 p.m. EST Feb. 25, 2009

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(Dow Jones Commodities News via Comtex) --

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
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Peruvian coffee exports in January, the first month of Peru's 2009 calendar-based production year, were up 42% to 179,658 bags, the producer-run Peruvian Coffee Board, or JNC, said Wednesday.

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Releasing the first preliminary figures for the year, this compares with January exports last year of 126,832 bags, the JNC said in the report, a copy of which was obtained by Dow Jones Newswires.
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The figures are in line with industry forecasts for Peruvian coffee exports to reach about 300,000 bags during the first quarter of 2009, as leftover supply from the 2008 bumper crop is running out.
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Peru's coffee exports in 2008 rose 30% to 3,732,567 bags, from exports in 2007 of 2,876,322 bags, the JNC said last month. Peru's domestic consumption is estimated at between 200,000 bags and 250,000 bags.
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But total Peruvian coffee production in calendar year 2009 is expected to fall 20% to 3.335 million bags, as trees recover from the 2008 harvest of 4,178,333 bags, which was the second highest output in Peru's coffee history.
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Physical harvesting of Peru's coffee crop starts in the second half of March, six months before the main mild washed arabica coffee crop in the rest of Latin America, and exports from the new crop start reaching the market in late April or May.
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Peru has become an increasingly important producer of high-quality washed arabica coffee in recent years, more than doubling production from about 1.7 million bags in the mid-1990s to between 3.5 million and 4.0 million bags currently.
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It competes with Honduras and Guatemala to be the second-largest exporter of washed arabica beans in Latin America after Colombia.
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-By Maja Wallengren, Dow Jones Newswires; mwallengren@hotmail.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires