Brazil Coffee Losses Seen Less Severe Than Forecast

Brazil coffee growers may face less severe losses than officially estimated as the first harvested beans indicate that rains last month reduced the impact of the worst drought in 50 years, the agriculture minister said. Brazil’s crop forecasting agency Conab reduced last month its estimate for this year’s coffee output to 44.6 million bags, from a January forecast of 46.5 million to 50.2 million bags. The forecast may be revised by the end of the harvest, Minister Neri Geller said in interview yesterday. Each bag weighs 60 kilograms (132 pounds). “I’m not going to give figures, but we expect that the output can be higher than that,” Geller said in an interview from his office in Brasilia. “And growers manage to take good care of the trees because the prices have gone up, so we will have a bumper crop for next year.” High temperatures and low rainfall in growing areas have fueled a 55 percent surge in prices this year and are expected to cut output for the mild-tasting arabica beans used in blends for Starbucks Corp. and Nestle SA by 16 percent to 32.2 million bags from 38.3 million last year, according to Conab. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-02/brazil-coffee-losses-seen-less-severe-than-forecast.html