Favorable weather conditions and new plantations coming online have contributed to Honduras’ national coffee institute IHCAFE raising its forecast for exports during the next harvesting season.

Coffee exports in Honduras, Central America’s top coffee producer, are forecast to climb 14% to 6.28m 60-kilogramme bags during the 2020-21 season. Exports for the 2019-20 season, which ends at the end of September, is forecast to be 5.52m bags.

The new forecast for 2019-20, which is down from the previous IHCAFE forecast of 6.52m bags, comes amid low prices and drought impacting the sector. It is more in line with the USDA 2019-20 forecast for exports in June of 5.50m bags.

According to IHCAFE, there are new approved biosecurity guidelines to protect the hundreds of thousands of workers in the national coffee industry from the coronavirus pandemic, of which health authorities have confirmed 70,000 cases and 2,200 deaths.

We have added IHCAFE’s latest export estimate to our Honduras coffee 2019-20 live forecast. You can also access the Honduras coffee 2020-21 forecast here.