The boom that the international prices of coffee for Guatemalan producers and exporters, who yesterday in the New York Stock Exchange was quoted at US $ 375 for Quintal Gold, is discouraged by the United States provisions to tax the income of this raw material by 10%, which maintains with some concern to the production chain.
Until last April 30, 44% of the total exports of the grain has been addressed to customers in the United States, and the National Coffee Association (Anacafé) reported five cases in which there are controversies for the implementation of tariffs in business between Guatemalan exporters and US buyers, due to the transfer of those costs.
At the moment it is unknown how many are the coffee lots grouped in those five files that face difficulties due to the application of the US tariff policy. UU. The International Coffee Organization (OIC) ensures that there is still no clarity about who will assume the charges, which puts the US industry alerts, that is, the importers.
The sector will present a proposal on the next visit that a Guatemalan delegation will be made to the Office of the United States Commercial Representative (USTR), at the end of the month in Washington DC and will raise the impact that the coffee growing has in Guatemala as a support of more than 125 thousand families, specifically on issues such as migration, environmental sustainability, security and sources of work, according to Anach of the regional workshop on the new regulation of the European Union and its impact on the Central American Café: Free Deforestation and Forest Degradation Café, which took place yesterday in Guatemala City.
Positions
Ricardo Andrés Desarac Bardales, president of Anacafé, declared that they are working together with the authorities involved and that there is already clarity on the meetings that will be held in the UST in the visit scheduled for May 27.
“The basis of the sector is a social issue, migration, security, and families, having crops, find their livelihoods; if there is a reduction in crop, there may be some migration problem, for example,”
Ricardo Andrés Desarac Bardales, president of Anacafé
“The basis of the sector is a social issue, migration, security, and families, having crops, find their livelihoods; if there is a reduction in crop, there may be some migration problem, for example. We go with the social issue of the impact of employment generation in the rural area, which is where it is most needed,” said Desarac.
In any case, he said that “good negotiations” are expected to get this visit and return to zero tariffs.
First reports
The manager confirmed that there are five reports to which the 10% tariff collection was applied to shipments, and it has been confirmed that the quota is moving to Guatemalan exporters, who gave the notice.
In a preliminary way, it is known that there are 20 22 -foot containers with different coffee qualities to which the tariff collection was applied.
In his opinion, the tariff should be covered by US importers, since the product is marketed FOB, that is, placed in port, and should not have an impact on the sector due to the way in which coffee is marketed. However, legal support is provided to exporters who are facing these problems, added the president of Anacafé.
Some coffee exporters are still in negotiation with US importers about who will assume the charges of tariffs, “in a private agreement,” he said.
Price improvement
During the first six months of the coffee year (October to September), the price positions in the international market have improved, both in the price of the New York Stock Exchange and in the average price for Guatemalan producers.
Anacafé records indicate that the average price in Guatemala is US $ 330 per quintal in harvest 2024-2025 (April 30), and is exceeding US $ 209.30 of harvest 2023-2024 and US $ 241.79 of 2022-2023.
Contracts for this harvest are already agreed with international buyers, and the contract process begins for the next 2025-2026 harvest with national exporters and producers.
The price improvement would be associated with the climatic effects recorded in Brazil, which is the largest producer worldwide, and that during this harvest registered a heat wave that generated low yields of the grain.
Currencies for coffee exports from October to April total US $ 624.60 million, so it is projected to exceed US $ 1 billion for the export of the grain.