Smuggling bloats Nicaragua coffee 'record'

Official statistics show that Nicaragua exported record exports of more than 3 million quintales -- a traditional measure -- in the 2017-2018 recently concluded harvest. But nobody in Nicaragua, except top officials, believes the claim.

"Of the 3.5 million quintales the officials claim, at least half a million are smuggled in from Honduras," said Aura Lila Sevilla Kuan, president of the Coffee Exporters Alliance.

"If we didn't face so many other problems, we might have really achieved 3 million, but the figure presented doesn't give a true picture of our industry," said Sevilla Kuan.