Rainstorms deal major blow to coffee and sugar crops

Months of heavy rains across Central America have ruined some sugar cane fields and damaged roads and bridges essential for the upcoming sugar and coffee harvests.

Sugar farmers in Guatemala -- Central America's biggest producer -- and Honduras cut their estimates for production in the upcoming 2010/11 harvest by around 5 percent. Losses in Nicaragua could be as high as 15 percent.

Coffee farmers are worried road blockages and damage to infrastructure on farms will delay the harvest as seasonal workers struggle to reach plantations.

Original source: Reuters