BUJUMBURA, April 29 (Reuters) - Revenue from Burundi coffee exports fell 64 percent in the 2013/14 crop year from the previous season, following a poor coffee output, its industry regulator said on Tuesday.
Coffee, the nation's top hard currency earner, generated $23.8 million, sharply down from $66.3 million earned in the 2012/13 crop year, official data from regulator ARFIC showed.
The landlocked east African country has exported 9,890 tonnes of green coffee in this season versus 24,000 tonnes in the 2012/13 season.
This quantity sold in the last harvest is even lower than the 13,000 tonnes that was expected, officials said, blaming coffee growers who are increasingly switching to other crops such as bananas and fruits, complaining about the volatility of the commodity prices and lack of fertilizers.
ARFIC projects coffee production for April 2014-March 2015 crop year to reach 21,000 tonnes due to good rains.
The industry employs some 800,000 smallholder farmers, almost 10 percent of the population. Burundi grows Arabica coffee.
In its March report on Burundi's economic outlook and risks, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said "the macroeconomic outlook in the country remains difficult and external vulnerabilities persist in the context of lower international coffee prices."
Economists have encouraged Burundi to diversify its export crops and not continue to rely on coffee and tea, which account for 85 percent of export revenues, but also develop other sectors such as tourism to generate more foreign currency.
(Reporting by Patrick Nduwimana; Editing by James Macharia and William Hardy)
((james.macharia@thomsonreuters.com)(Tel: +254 20 221 4608)(Reuters Messaging: james.macharia.thomsonreuters@reuters.net))
Keywords: BURUNDI COFFEE/
