El Nino, not quake, to hit Colombian coffee harvest, sector leader says
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Despite widespread damage wreaked by a 7.4-magnitude quake, coffee growers view the severe weather of an El Nino year as the bigger threat.
PHOTO: REUTERS
BOGOTA - Colombia’s coffee harvest has dodged the impact of a powerful earthquake that hit farming regions throughout the western part of the country, the head of the National Coffee Growers Federation told Reuters in an interview on Aug 20.
Despite widespread damage wreaked by the 7.4-magnitude quake, coffee growers view the severe weather of an El Nino year as the bigger threat, said the federation’s head, German Bahamon.
“Production itself is not affected by the earthquake. Production will very likely be affected by the El Nino phenomenon,” Bahamon said in an interview.
El Nino is a periodic warming of sea surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific caused by weakening trade winds. Global forecasters say an El Nino weather pattern is strengthening and could develop into a very strong event later this year into early 2027 that boosts temperatures, disrupts rainfall and poses risks to crops the world over.
The federation expects production in 2026 to drop 8 per cent to 12.5 million 60kg bags, down from 13.7 million bags in 2025, due to heavy rains earlier in 2026 and the onset of El Nino.
The quake in Colombia on August 10 killed 319 people and damaged infrastructure throughout provinces responsible for about a third of the nation’s crop.
Initial surveys identified 10,500 coffee-growing families in the disaster zone, with 8,000 reporting partial or total destruction of homes and processing facilities. The federation plans to spearhead a reconstruction programme alongside government aid, including a programme to purchase harvested coffee cherries.
Exports from Buenaventura – Colombia’s main coffee port, which handles 60 per cent of shipments – have returned to normal following temporary safety inspections and road closures.
“There have been no issues with exports... They are proceeding perfectly,” Bahamon said.
Colombia is the world’s third-largest coffee producer and the top supplier of washed Arabica. Approximately 540,000 families depend on the industry, which covers 840,000ha.
Beyond climate concerns, Bahamon warned that the strength of the Colombian peso – at its highest level since October 2018 – is eroding farmer margins. He estimated growers are losing 700,000 pesos (S$290) per 125kg load due to the rising value against the dollar. REUTERS
