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International Flights to Peru to Resume October 1
The operation of international flights, paralyzed by the closure of borders to avoid contagion by coronavirus (COVID-19), will restart from October 1, announced this Wednesday the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC).
“The date has already been defined, we do the flight scheduling per month. Then (it will be) October 1, it has already been arranged for that date to be ”, affirmed the head of the MTC, Carlos Estremadoyro.
The minister indicated that during September the health protocol to be followed to avoid COVID-19 infections will be finalized with the airlines, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (Mincetur), the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF).
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International flights: which destinations are being evaluated to be the first to open, according to Canatur?
“We have to prepare the system and for this we have established that all this September we are going to prepare, the sale of tickets will be made, the issue of sanitary protocols will be organized for which we have already made a proposal to the airlines, “he said.
Estremadoyro said that some airlines have already accepted the proposals made by the Executive, while with others they are still holding discussions to reach an agreement.
He also assured that the number of flights will be limited, as with air travel at the national level.
“We have 18 authorized daily flights in the country and we are using 10. 18 started, they went down and now we are at 10, there is no more demand. In some cases in which there is an over-demand, for health issues we ourselves will restrict. If there were 4 flights to Spain, it would only be 1 or 2, no more ”, he pointed out.
The minister pointed out that the government aims to restart operations with the United States, Mexico, Spain, Chile, Argentina and Brazil in a first stage.
Via El Comercio Peru (translated via Google translate) Full article here (Spanish)
We’re very happy to see this news. Yay!
Machu Picchu Monday
It’s been a while, and we still don’t know when we can return, but one can dream…
In Spite of Pandemic Coffee Still Plentiful
Coffee lovers, here’s something to be grateful about. Unlike paper towels, disinfectant or yeast, coffee has never been hard to find during the pandemic.
It has remained widely available on supermarket shelves even though COVID-19 has been particularly bad in some of the world’s largest coffee growing nations. Brazil, which has recorded more cases than any nation other than the United States, is the world’s top producer of coffee. India, Mexico and Colombia all rank in the top ten globally for both COVID cases and coffee production. Other major coffee exporters including Peru and Uganda have found themselves cut off by border closures and lockdowns.
“It’s natural to think that the harvesting of the coffee crops may be disrupted or perhaps badly disrupted,” says Steven Hurst, a coffee trader based in London. “But quite honestly and quite frankly, we’ve seen relatively little, if any, evidence of that.”
Source: Many major coffee producing nations also have large COVID outbreaks : NPR
For Peru, there are no international flights, and many coffee regions only recently began to have domestic air service. Lockdowns have been very strict, yet cases have been some of the highest in the world. The bigger exporters & Cooperatives with previous contracts have been doing well, but the small farmers that have no long term commitments are suffering.
For us, it meant no trip to Peru this summer, and uncertainty as to when we’ll be able to return.
Thursday Morning Coffee
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Italian Police Find Drugs Hidden Inside Coffee Beans
Drug dealers are always looking for ingenious ways to get their products past checkpoints, and sometimes they exhibit some truly outside-the-box thinking. The attention of Italian customs officers at Malpensa Airport was recently drawn by a small package from Colombia to a man named Santino D’Antonio.
If you’re not an action flick buff, that name most likely means nothing to you, but if you’re a fan of John Wick movies starring Keanu Reeves, you probably recognize it as the name of the mafia boss and main antagonist in John Wick 2. Luckily, the officers recognized the name, and decided to inspect the package more thoroughly…
Source: Italian Police Find Drugs Hidden Inside Coffee Beans
This may be why when we import coffee, we have to pay for a contraband exam… The best part of waking up?
Consumers Shift To Robusta Beans Amid Recession
An unintended consequence of the virus-induced recession, lockdowns, and people working from home is a massive demand shift from expensive coffee beans, commonly found at Starbucks, and called arabica, to cheap beans, found in instant coffee, called robusta.
The shift in coffee demand is bad news for Starbucks, that’s why it announced, last month, over 400 stores will be closing in the next 18 months. The world’s largest coffeehouse must shrink its corporate footprint as the economy evolves to where workers are staying home and are reducing costs to weather the economic storm.
The shift in demand is being seen in surging Robusta coffee prices on ICE. In the last 19 sessions, September contracts have gone parabolic, up 19%, hitting 1,363 on Thursday morning, or a six month high.
The latest upswing in prices is because the virus-induced recession is “prompting a shift in consumption toward cheaper, instant coffee blends,” reported Reuters.
Source: Zerohedge
Sunday Morning Coffee
Coffee Futures To Near 15-Year Low Due to Surplus
Coffee fundamentals indicate deteriorating demand and oversupplied conditions could soon pressure prices to 15-year lows.
A global surplus of 3.5 million bags is expected in 2020-21 as Brazil expects a record crop after a lower yield in 2019. To some degree, this had been anticipated by the market. Adding to concerns about a bulging supply imbalance, the Brazilian real has dropped 5% in the last few weeks versus the U.S. dollar.
Coffee farmers in Brazil who fear continued real weakness have an incentive to deliver more and more coffee for export, even at the current low prices. Expectations for demand growth, the one positive variable that had supported price increases, have been dialed back in light of the global pandemic.
Recent data from the International Coffee Organization revealed global arabica coffee exports of 82.75 million bags in 2019, a six percent increase over 2018, and growth had been expected to continue in 2020 until lockdowns tempered the optimism. – a Charles Schwab commodity report said, seen by FXStreet. Now knowing the bearish fundamental backdrop, Reuters Commodity Desk forecasts a significant “downward wave (c) ” that could result in coffee prices reaching $0.6380 per lb in the first half of 2021.
Source: Pandemic Crushes Coffee Futures To Near 15-Year Low | Zero Hedge
We can’t even go to Peru these days, but we’re hoping to soon. San Martin, where we are based, is under a stricter lockdown, and no flights are being allowed, and no firm date as to when flights will return.
Peru Begins to Lift Lockdown
Bloomberg reports:
Peru will lift quarantine measures for most of the country starting July 1, easing one of the world’s strictest lockdowns as it faces a severe economic slide.
Mandatory isolation orders will end for all but a handful of departments, according to a government decree issued late Friday, which left in place a state of emergency until July 31. Children and the elderly will continue to face restrictions and borders will remain closed.
The country of 32 million enacted severe lockdown measures in mid-March to stem the spread of the coronavirus, deploying soldiers to the streets to enforce stay-at-home measures.
The virus spread rapidly anyway, leaving Peru with nearly 9,000 deaths and more than 272,000 cases as of Friday, the highest caseload in Latin America after Brazil and the sixth-highest in the world, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The country has been gradually reopening the economy since May and is due to start the third of four phases next month, but the lockdown has taken a toll. The International Monetary Fund forecasts a 13.9% contraction this year, the steepest drop among major economies in the region.