* World-wide purchases to total 13.65 mln 60-kg bags
* Nestle to buy 1.2 million bags in Colombia in 2011
Nestle , the world's biggest food maker, expects to buy 1.2 million 60-kg coffee bags from Colombia this year, little changed from 2010, the company said on Thursday.
Colombia, the world's No. 1 producer of high quality washed Arabica beans, has had two years of lower coffee output due to bad weather, pests and a tree renovation program, but expects a slight recovery of bean output this year.
"Right now with the conditions we have, I don't think that (purchases) will grow much," said Ricardo Piedrahita, Nestle's supply chain director for Colombia.
Colombia will provide about 9 percent of the firm's total bean purchases this year, which are expected to total 13.65 million 60-kg bags, Nestle said.
Colombia's coffee federation said on Thursday that coffee production this year was expected to reach at least 9 million 60-kg bags, the highest level since 2008, as better weather helps flowering. [ID:nN24251937]
Fiona Kendrick, Nestle's senior vice president of beverages, said the firm expected to purchase 819,000 tonnes of coffee worldwide in 2011, a 5 percent increase from the 780,000 tonnes purchased last year.
"We obviously look to buy our coffee accordingly to the origins that we require for our needs ... Growth is very good at approximately 5 percent," Kendrick told Reuters on the sidelines of a press conference held in Bogota.
Climate change affected coffee plantations throughout Colombia in 2010 as abrupt moves from drought to strong rains caused the appearance of roya and other fungi, according to the government's agriculture institute.
About 300,000 hectares (741,300 acres) of the total 900,000 coffee hectares were hit by roya prompting growers to cut trees planted with the varietal Caturra -- which has high production and good quality but is not resistant to roya -- and replant.
To support Colombia's growing production and purchases, Nestle along with the coffee federation launched a $3.17 million program to help growers plant trees resistant to pests and apply environmental friendly practices.
The plan calls to distribute 50 million resistant tree varietals by 2020. This year, they will distribute 4 million castilla trees, a varietal resistant to roya and renovate 727 hectares of coffee land, they said.
With the plan, Nestle expects to double the amount of coffee it buys directly from farmers and their associations over the next five years, the company said.
The Andean country produced 8.9 million bags last year and 7.8 million in 2009. In 2008, it produced 11.1 million bags, about its historic annual average
source: https://portal.hpd.global.reuters.com/site/applist.aspx
