According to estimates by the Coffee Institute of Costa Rica (ICAFÉ), the harvest that has been collected (2016-2017) in all producing regions could fall by 12.5%, compared to the previous year..
The previous harvest (2015-2016) was 2.2 million bushels. The first estimate for this collection was 2.7 million bushels, but now it is forecast at 1.95 million bushels. A bushel is equivalent to 46 kg of ready-to-roast gold coffee.
ICAFÉ believes that some factors causing the decline are: late blooms due to prolonged dry season in the regions of Pérez Zeledón, Poás and Naranjo, an irregular beginning of the rainy season, dry days in the Central and Western Valleys, a smaller harvest in Los Santos and the rainy fronts before and during Hurricane Otto that overlapped with the optimum ripening days in the Southern Zone, causing the fruit to fall.
According to the Institute, the harvest only increases in the North Zone producing regions by 48.6% and in Turrialba by 72.4%. However, it decreases in Coto Brus by 10.6%, in Los Santos by 19%, in Pérez Zeledón by 26%, in the Central Valley almost 1% and in the Western Valley 13.3%.