Cumulative October-through-March shipments totalled 3.22 million bags, up almost 38 percent from the year-earlier period, when shipments totalled 2.34 million bags. IHCAFE expects exports to grow more than 40 percent this year to 7.2 million bags in the 2016-2017 harvest. 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.
Copyright Reuters, 2017