Ethiopia to rank the third coffee producer in the world

      The report released by the international organization states World coffee output over the last two seasons has beaten previous expectations by nearly 5m bags. This is due to the far-higher-than-expected production by Ethiopia. The organization says the birthplace of the bean, has overtaken Colombia. Global coffee output in 2010-11 was close to 135m bags, more than 1m bags higher than previously expected. For the current 2011-12 season, the production estimate was lifted by close to 4m bags to more than 132m bags. The Organization also said that the 9.8m bags that Ethiopia will produce would rank the country as the world's third-largest producer after Brazil and Vietnam. According to Agromoney’s report, in recent seasons, Colombia and Indonesia have been battling it out for third rank, however the report stated, excessive rainfall blamed on the La Nina weather pattern which significantly reduced the production. The upgrade to the estimate for Ethiopian output offset small downgrades to production forecasts for Central America, which suffered heavy rains late last year. The rise in production, now seen doubling in three seasons, come amid a government drive to more than double coffee output in the five years to 2015 .(Agromoney)