Property boom threatens Panama gourmet coffee

Reuters
By Tim Gaynor

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Panama specialty coffee growers Tuesday warned that a boom in highland real estate sales to foreign retirees threatens to dent the Central American nation's future gourmet coffee exports.

Ramon Garcia de Paredes, president of the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama (SCAP), said a combination of low coffee prices and a spike in land sales around the town of Boquete could lead to a 20-percent reduction in gourmet bean exports in the next five years as many farmers sell up.

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