milan – More and more Latin American coffee growers are cutting fertilizers because costs are skyrocketing . Stable for almost a decade, fertilizer prices have hiked in the last year on high demand and as oil and natural gas prices rose. Prices for common phosphate fertilizers have increased five-fold in the past 15 months to an unprecedented $1,230 per tonne. At that level, farmers must use close to a third of what they earn per pound of coffee just to pay for fertilizers. Outputs will inevitably suffer, growers say. The pinch on production will be felt in coming years, when trees produce less for lack of nutrients.

Latin American government are implementing different strategies to face the situation. In Colombia, the government has earmarked US$50 million in fertilizer subsidies this year.

Nicaragua supplies some farmers with lower-priced fertilizers sold at cost to the country by its oil-rich, political ally Venezuela.

Production costs rose 20 percent compared with the previous harvest in Costa Rica, said the local coffee institute due to higher prices of fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides. Labour and other inputs were also more expensive. Rodrigo Vargas who heads one of Costa Rica's largest growers groups said in an interview that producers have not yet realized the extent of the problem, because they still have stocks of fertilizers in their warehouses, but lower yields are to be expected in the coming years.

Source: Comunicaffé

Date: 14/08/08