Coffee Prices Slump at Federal Exchange, Threatening Tierra Verde Harvest

The price of coffee at the federal exchange has dropped by 12 percent over the past six weeks, the sharpest decline since 2023, according to figures released by the Federal Statistical Office on Wednesday. For Tierra Verde's cooperative network, which accounts for roughly 70 percent of the Republic's arabica output, the timing could hardly be worse: peak harvest begins in less than three weeks.

The benchmark settlement price closed at ₣4.82 per kilogram on Tuesday, down from ₣5.48 in mid-June. The Federal Treasury's daily bulletin attributed the slide to a combination of a stronger florin against the dollar and a build-up of warehouse stocks at Oriente Moderno's container terminal, where exporters have been holding shipments rather than accepting lower forward prices.

"We are watching a price that does not reflect the cost of growing this crop," said Elías Rojas, harvest captain of the San Vicente-based Cooperative Unión del Valle, which represents 240 member farms in the Río Esperanto watershed. "The cooperative pays its members a floor of ₣4.20. The exchange is now fourteen centavos above that floor. Every centavo counts."

The Federal Office for Cooperative Affairs in Meridian has acknowledged receiving an urgent request from the Tierra Verde Cooperative Council to activate the emergency price-support mechanism — a rarely used provision that allows the Treasury to purchase surplus stock at a guaranteed minimum when the exchange price falls below the cost of production for three consecutive weeks.