Mexico’s Agriculture Secretariat (Sagarpa) wants relaunch coffee production by boosting productivity and attracting more producers to grow the crop, according to Belisario Domínguez Méndez, director of productivity and technological development at the ministry.
For Sagarpa, coffee is an important sector and was allocated 700 million pesos in the 2015 budget. But in an effort to stimulate the industry’s development and growth, another 1.3 billion pesos was added.
The government is currently completing a registry of coffee producers as Sagarpa has been working with information that is 12 years out of date, said Domínguez.
Coffee production in Mexico has dropped significantly: output was 3.6 million bags in the 2014-15 season, down from 6 million in 2000. Domínguez believes that to reverse the trend Mexico must increase its investment in the sector, improve the technology used and spur domestic consumption.
“Although not serious, coffee conditions in Mexico do need our attention. Some coffee plantations have a small plants-per-hectare ratio, and plants aren’t fertilized or trimmed, they’re practically abandoned. Sagarpa must encourage and contribute to the development of coffee cultivation,” said Domínguez.
Twelve states in Mexico are coffee producers: Chiapas, Colima, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Veracruz and Tabasco.
Mexico is the world’s ninth largest coffee producer but the second largest producer of organic coffee, Agriculture Secretary Enrique Martínez y Martínez said yesterday at the inauguration of the International Coffee Convention, being held this year in Mexico City.
He told the conference that among measures being implemented to strengthen the coffee industry is the renewal of more than 75,000 hectares of coffee plantations with plants that are resistant to coffee leaf rust, or roya, and other problems. Martínez said Sagarpa’s objective is to renew at least 250,000 hectares before the end of the administration’s term in 2018.
Roya is a serious problem in many coffee-growing areas. Growers in Veracruz said in April they were seeing the worst year in the history of coffee production in the state.
