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Venezuelan coffee production is expected to fall by 80% in 2019. Flick / Bernardo Londoy / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Due to hyperinflation and multiple shortages, production is not expected to exceed 20,000 tonnes this year, much less than domestic demand, especially as much of it is destined for export.

With our correspondent in Venezuela, Benjamin Delille

For Venezuelan coffee producers , it's freefall. The production of one of the best arabicas in the world, is expected to fall by 80% in 2019, predicts Fedeagro, the Confederation of Agricultural Producers Associations in Venezuela.

A drastic drop in production due to two main factors. First, shortages of fertilizers and pesticides. The plantations have been devoured by insects and diseases. Then, the classic problems that Venezuela is experiencing because of its hyperinflation , as Diolegdy Páez, director of the coffee branch of Fedeagro explains. " The workforce has become too expensive, " she says. The infrastructures are no longer maintained. Power cuts and fuel shortages have particularly affected us : we need them to dry and grind the grain. And also especially for the marketing of coffee. "

Soaring prices and shortages

Venezuela will therefore have to increase its coffee imports enormously if it wants to satisfy its national demand: about 220,000 tons a year, which is eleven times what was picked in 2019. Prices will therefore increase, shortages too, and many Venezuelan households will have to do without their traditional coffee.

Fedeagro reminds that this crisis concerns all Venezuelan agriculture. In ten years, it would have fallen back to its 1960 levels, and nothing seems to be able to stop its downfall.

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