SAN JOSE, July 1 (Reuters) - Costa Rican coffee exports rose 5.6% in June, according to national coffee institute ICAFE data released on Wednesday, reversing course after a substantial dip the month before.
Coffee shipments totaled 144,389 60-kg bags in June, compared to 136,676 bags in the same month last year, the data showed.
Costa Rica, one of the region’s smaller coffee producers, but known for its high-quality beans, exported 841,697 bags during the first nine months of the 2019/2020 harvesting season, down 2% from the same period a year earlier.
The coffee season in Central America and Mexico, which together produce about a fifth of the world’s arabica beans, runs from October through September.
Local farmers have warned that the coronavirus has led to a foreign labor shortage, raising fears that there won’t be enough workers to pick the harvest. (Reporting by Alvaro Murillo, Writing by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.