Coffee exports may not rise in the current fiscal

"The exports during 2008-09 fiscal is expected to remain at last year's level of 2.2 lakh tonne," Coffee Exporters Association President Ramesh Rajah said.     

Rajah noted that carry over stock of coffee from the previous year would be less, which means that the availability of crop for exports would be less this year.     
"Generally, the carryover stock is about 25,000 tonne. However, this year it would be only 10,000 tonne," he added.     

Rajah said the coffee is available from December ownwards and the majority of the exports is being done during January- March quarter.     

In the post blossom forecast, the Coffee Board has pegged the production at 2.93 lakh tonne in 2008-09 season beginning October, which is an increase of 12 per cent over the previous season's post-monsoon estimate of 2.62 lakh tonne.     

Of the total estimated output, arabic production is seen at one lakh tons while robusta at 1.93 lakh tonne. Arabica production is forecast to be higher by 7,500 tonne and robusta by 23,500 tonne over the post monsoon forecast of 2007-08.     

When asked about the Board's production forecast, Rajah said, "it is reasonable."      India's coffee exports declined by 12 per cent at 2.24 lakh tonne during 2007-08 fiscal. The Board, however, met the projected target of 2.10 lakh tonne.     

Exports to Italy topped followed by those to Russia, Germany and Belgium. India shipped over 16,000 tonne of coffee to Italy, 7,493 tonne to Russia and 5,865 tonne to Germany.