Kenya 07/08 coffee crop could be 30 pct lower

By Duncan Miriri

NAIROBI, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Coffee berry disease will cut Kenya's coffee harvest in the 2007/08 crop year by 20 to 30 percent, based on internal forecasts, the Coffee Board of Kenya said on Tuesday.
"Initially we had projected a slightly higher output, something to do with 53,000-54,000 metric tonnes. So far I am looking at something between a 20 percent, 25 percent, 30 percent drop, and that is quite substantial," Bernard Gichovi, a senior board member of the Coffee Board of Kenya, told Reuters in an interview.

"The weather changed so much towards the end of the (06/07) season ... and that brought a severe CBD (coffee berry disease) attack that drastically reduced the crop we expected to realise this year."

More >>