National exports of green, roasted, and gold coffee in the first half of 2022 totaled $145.4 million, 62.3% more than in the same period of 2021, according to figures reported by the Central Reserve Bank (BCR).

The BCR report indicated that during the first six months of 2022, grain sales exceeded 563,440 quintals, 5.7% more than in June of last year. In June alone, grain sales exceeded $28.1 million.

Of the total coffee exported, including roasted or decaffeinated; husk and husk of coffee; $64.42 million worth of coffee substitutes containing coffee in any proportion were sold to Central America, the BCR added in its monthly report.

Regarding the average price per quintal, the variation was 27.4%. In June 2021, the quintal averaged $184.33 and last month $253.79.

In 2019, prices suffered a historic drop; then at the end of 2020 they began their escalation; in 2021 they continued to rise due to the risk of supply shortages, and in 2022 they reached record levels.

Vanusia Nogueira, president of the International Coffee Organization (ICO), stated at the beginning of the year that prices will fall in 2023 but that she hopes they will not fall back to the values of 2019.

“We are in a moment of unparalleled complexity because (the current one) is a high price with which no one is satisfied, neither the buying side nor the producers themselves,” Nogueira said, according to a note published by EFE.

INTERNATIONAL PANORAMA

The International Coffee Organization (ICO) continues to estimate that world coffee consumption will grow by 3.3%, to 170.3 million bags, in the coffee year 2021/22, compared to 164.9 million in 2020/21. It also forecasts that in 2021–22, consumption will exceed production by 3.1 million bags.

In its May coffee market report, the ICO stated that “the latest provisional estimate of total production for coffee year 2021/22 remains the same at 167.2 million bags, down 2.1% from 170.83 million bags in the previous coffee year”.

In El Salvador, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) projects that production in coffee year 2021/22 will grow by 15% compared to the previous one and reach one million quintals of gold grapes.

If so, the country would reach the highest production in the last decade. El Salvador has not exceeded the figure since the 2012/13 harvest, when it produced 1.7 million quintals after the impact of rust.

The 2021/22 coffee year ends in September and almost two months before it ends, the Salvadoran Coffee Council (CSC) reports a 14.6% increase in production with 906,290 quintals of coffee harvested. The 2020/2021 harvest was 790,920 quintals of gold grape coffee.