Ecuador's Ministry of Agriculture has begun implementing a US$70 million initiative known as the 'Reactivation of Ecuador's Coffee Cultivation' project. Under the programme, the ministry is hoping to renovate 135,000 hectares of old coffee lands following a period when low international prices and coffee leaf rust have badly affected farmer incomes - so much so that many coffee farmers have been questioning the profitability of the sector and considered quitting it. At the same time, the Ecuadorian government is said to have been considering setting a minimum price well above international coffee prices, in order to entice farmers to expand production. Whether this is likely to happen now that prices have risen steeply (at the time of writing they were at the US$1.80 level) is unclear.
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