SAO PAULO, June 28 (Reuters) - The harvest of robusta coffee in the area where the farmer cooperative Cooabriel operates in the Espirito Santo state in Brazil reached around 70% of the fields, according to the head of the co-op, who said output seems smaller than expected.
Luiz Carlos Bastianello, president of Cooabriel, said farmers managed to speed up field work after a slower-than-normal start to the harvesting this year.
"And we expect the harvest to end earlier than normal," he said, referring to a possibly smaller output than the co-op initially projected. He did not give numbers.
Cooabriel earlier this year estimated that it would receive around 2 million bags from associated farmers this year. The amount equals to around 10% of total robusta production in Brazil.
Bastianello said strong storms during the crop development were to blame for a possibly smaller production.
He said that around half of the volume the co-op expected to receive had already arrived at its warehouses.
Farmers have increased sales of the coffee, he said, taking advantage of near record prices in the international market for robusta.
Another coffee cooperative, Cooxupe, which specializes in arabica beans, on Wednesday said the harvest in the areas where it operates (Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo states) reached 27.8% of the fields, ahead of last year (19.1%) and the quickest pace since 2020 (29.1%).
(Reporting by Roberto Samora; writing by Marcelo Teixeira in New York; Editing by Mark Porter)
