The National Supply Company of Brazil (CONAB) has raised its expectation for the 2014 harvest to 45.1 million bags - up 1 percent from its previous forecast back in May. This represents an 8 percent reduction (4,010 bags) from the 49.15 million bags produced in the last harvest. Despite the hot, dry weather the 2015 crop is expected to increase, ranging between 47.9 and 49.8 million bags – an increase of 9-10 percent from the projected 2014 output. With harvesting almost complete, CONAB is expected to announce a new 2014 crop estimate next week.

With the volatile sentiment surrounding Brazil’s 2014/2015 crop drawing to a close, we turn our focus to Colombia which will begin harvest of new main crop next month. This will be shortly followed, in the lead up to 2015, by producer group Mexico and the Central Americas.

Bennetts were lucky enough to meet with Mette-Marie, coffee trader with C. Dormans in Kenya, whilst she was in the country last week. Chatting with Bennetts’ staff and clients, she offered an update of the continuing Nyeri situation and gave an overview of the Kenyan coffee trade. Unfortunately the latest news from Nyeri is limited as the region seems to be at a standstill. Many farmers are still waiting to be paid and a percentage of the regions coffee appears to remain unsold. The industry continues to wait for a move from the Governor with main crop harvest set to begin later this year. In light of the concern, the shift has prompted traders and exporters to seek high quality coffee from alternate regions in the origin and, as such, training and assistance to improve quality and yield is now being offered to and increased number of producers in Kenya. The overarching sentiment for Kenyan coffee as we move into the 2015 crop is positive. Early production forecasts cite a reduction of between 10-15 percent due to the origin experiencing the ‘off-year’ of their biennial crop cycle.

In other industry news, Grounds for Health has announced its expansion into the East African origin of Ethiopia. After many months of planning, the Grounds for Health Ethiopia program is set to kick off this month with the first set of community and clinical trainings on cervical cancer prevention. The trainings will take place in the heart of the coffee-growing region—in Wonsho district of Sidama zone—and will conclude with a four-day screen-and-treat campaign serving approximately 250 women. If successful, these activities will make Wonsho the first rural district in all of Ethiopia to offer ongoing cervical cancer prevention services.