Costa Rica sees 3 percent coffee-output rise in 2011-12. Profits to be invested in raising productivity for upcoming season

\ Costa Rica's coffee production is expected to rise slightly during the upcoming 2011-2012 season as farmers use profits from this season's high prices to increase their productivity, an official with the Costa Rican Coffee Institute, or Icafé, said.\ \ Output is expected to rise roughly 3 percent to 1.55 million 60-kilogram bags, he added.\ \ Costa Rica, once the second-largest coffee producer in Central America, has fallen in the ranks of coffee-producing countries. Output has dropped 35 percent over the past 10 years as plantations, abandoned by producers when prices plummeted in the early 90s, were taken over for other uses.\ \ Original source: MarketWatch\ \ \ \