* Mexico 10/11 harvest seen at 4.2 mln 60-kg bags
* Harvest delay in No. 2 producing state slows exports
* Frost may have damaged quality of some beans
MEXICO CITY, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Mexico sees its 2010/11 coffee crop at around 4.2 million bags, flat compared to last season's harvest, although delays in the harvest are slowing exports and frosts may have damaged the quality of some beans.
"We don't think the harvest could drop significantly (compared to last year)," Rene Avila, an operations coordinator at the national coffee association Amecafe told Reuters.
Exports have been slowing from Mexico, a major arabica producer, raising worried about a smaller coffee crop. Tight global arabica supplies have pushed coffee prices <KCc2> recently to their highest levels in more than three decades.
But Avila said while the crop would not be significantly smaller than last year, it is coming in slower due to unfavorable weather in Mexico's No. 2 coffee growing state of Veracruz.
"It is very clear that in some parts of Veracruz the harvest is delayed. It didn't rain enough and then it was cold at the beginning of the harvest which means the cherries ripen much slower," Avila said.
Coffee trees flower and produce cherries that are picked and processed into coffee beans for export.
In the first four months of the 2010/11 coffee season, which began in October exports from Mexico dropped more than 25 percent.
Coffee consumption is increasing in Mexico, which could also be contributing to the recent decline in exports, but in March production could pick up, Avila said.
In the central states of Hidalgo, San Luis Potosi and Puebla, which produce around a quarter of Mexico's coffee, ripening cherries were hit by a cold snap that might have hurt the quality of the beans, Avila said.
"The frosts could have affected quality, not necessarily the volume of total production because the cherries had already been formed," he said.
Last year the same states were hit by unusually cold weather that cut production and the trees are still recovering from those losses he said.
Source: ((mica.rosenberg@thomsonreuters.com; +52 55 5282 7153; Reuters Messaging:
mica.rosenberg.com@reuters.net))
