Nicaraguan producers denounce that other coffee companies refuse to receive their coffee under the argument that the beans have a lien on them from CISA.
By Ivan Olivares (Confidencial)
HAVANA TIMES – At least 60 Nicaraguan coffee growers —mostly from Matagalpa and Jinotega— who had operations with the recently closed CISA Exportadora, were to meet this Friday, December 8, 2023. The objective was to form a committee that will allow them to influence the bankruptcy process of Mercon Coffee Group, which threatens their finances, and those of thousands of workers who depend on this activity. Nicaragua received USD $711 million from coffee exports in 2022.
The crisis that affects a good part of the country’s coffee producers became evident on December 1, when CISA informed them that it would stop receiving their beans, awakening a fear that materialized in the following hours and days, when it was learned that Mercon, the global firm that owns CISA Exportadora, had gone bankrupt.
On December 6, a letter signed by the CEO of Mercon Coffee Group, Oscar Sevilla, confirmed that after evaluation of all options, “the business no longer has the necessary financing to continue its operations and the Board decided to file for Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code, as the best alternative to protect the company’s assets.”
The 60 producers seek to organize themselves to “be in any type of negotiation, so that they do nothing behind our backs. This is how we are going to let the government and the banks involved know, because here they usually make deals without taking us into account. In the end they only tell us ‘we decided on that’, and we are all in this boat,” a coffee grower told CONFIDENCIAL. He did not rule out meeting with government officials, as well as with bank representatives.
A total of 8.3% of the debts that led to Mercon’s bankruptcy are contracted with Nicaraguan banks: $19.5 million USD with Lafise; 7 million with the Production Development Bank; 2.0 million with the BDF, and 1.5 million with the BAC Ni