Nicaragua Apr 2007-08 Coffee Exports Up 43% To 174,647 Bags

Nicaraguan coffee exports in April, the seventh month of the new 2007-08 crop cycle, were up 43% to 174,647 (60-kilogram) bags, the official Nicaraguan Export Center, Cetrex, said Friday.

This compares to total Nicaraguan coffee shipments of 121,803 bags in April last year during the 2006-07 harvest year, Cetrex said in a report, a copy of which was obtained by Dow Jones Newswires.

Total Nicaraguan coffee exports from the beginning of the 2007-08 cycle - Oct. 1 through April - meanwhile, were up 35% to 827,142 bags, from shipments of 612,031 bags in the October-April period of the 2006-07 cycle.

Nicaraguan coffee exports in the last 2006-07 cycle ended down 15% on the year at 1,156,577 bags, compared to shipments of 1,362,487 bags in the 2005-06 record harvest year, Cetrex reported at the end of the cycle.

But Nicaraguan exports shipped during the 2006-07 crop cycle included about 200,000 bags of carryover stocks from the record 2005-06 harvest, industry officials said.

Nicaraguan coffee production in the 2006-07 harvest ended down 41% at 932,396 bags, from production of 1,590,490 bags in the 2005-06 cycle, Nicaragua's Ministry of Agriculture said in a 2007 report.

-By Maja Wallengren, Dow Jones Newswires; 5255-5001-5725; mwallengren@hotmail.com