Peruvian coffee group cuts 2009 output estimate

LIMA (Reuters) - Coffee output in Peru, South America's No. 3 coffee producer, should fall 30 percent this year, an off-year for Peru's coffee crop, from 2008, an on-year, a leading growers group said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the Reuters Latin American Investment Summit, Cesar Rivas, president of the National Coffee Board, said production should total 3.8 million 46-kilogram bags in 2009. In January, the group forecast an annual output of 4.35 million bags. Peru produced 5.45 million bags in 2008.

Rivas said the revised 2009 outlook was based on too much rain in some coffee growing areas and a scarcity of workers.

He predicted production in 2010, an on-year, should rise to around 5 million bags.

(Reporting by Dana Ford; Editing by David Gregorio)