TEGUCIGALPA, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Central American coffee crops escaped significant damage from Hurricane Felix, which hit Nicaragua and then moved over Honduras as a tropical storm, coffee authorities and growers said on Wednesday. Hurricanes can wreak havoc with Central America's prized coffee crop and bean prices surged in London and New York on Tuesday on speculative buying as Felix made landfall in Nicaragua as a potentially catastrophic Category 5 storm. But first reports showed the region's beans had been spared. The Honduran Coffee Institute, or IHCAFE, said the country's harvest escaped significant damage. "There was no damage to speak of. We have a bit of rain, but that's normal in the months of September and October," IHCAFE head David Valeriano told Reuters. In neighboring Nicaragua, coffee growers said early reports showed the crop had not been damaged by Hurricane Felix. "There have been no reports of damage on the farms for the moment," said Frank Lanzas, president of the Association of Coffee Producers of Matagalpa and a director of the board of the Nicaraguan Coffee Council. Jose Ramon Zeledon, a farmer from the Jinotega region, said nothing had happened to his farm and that Felix was just producing normal rains. (Additional reporting by Brian Harris in Managua)
