USDA-stirs hot debate on coffee

USDA-stirs hot debate on coffee

BOGOTA (Reuter): The latest U.S. estimate of coffee output in Brazil, Colombia and Indonesia has stirred heated debate in Brazil, where industry officials are openly challenging its accuracy.

In Colombia, a leading industry official said he saw the debate as little more than a tempest in a cup of "cafezinho," however, since the figures from the U.S. Agriculture Department appeared more or less on target.

"They're not far from reality," Gabriel Rosas Vega, president of the private Colombian Coffee Exporters' Association, told Reuters.

In its World Agricultural Production report, USDA pegged Colombia's 1997/98 coffee output at 11.3 million 60-kg bags, up from a sharply revised estimate of 10.3 million bags for 1996/97.

It also forecast Brazil's 1996/97 and 1997-98 coffee crops at 27.5 million and 28 million bags, respectively, compared to the Brazilian government's estimates of 25-26 million for 1996-97 and 22 million for 1997-98.

The forecast prompted Mauricio Assis, head of the primary commodities department at Brazil's Industry and Commerce Ministry, to complain that it was flawed by the apparent lack any credible methodology.