Coffee Board pegs output at 350,400 tonnes in 2017-18

Coffee output in India, Asia's third-largest producer, is estimated to climb to a record high this year, the state-run Coffee Board said.
 

Production may increase 12 per cent to 350,400 tonnes in 2017-18 from a year earlier, the board said in an e-mailed statement on Tuesday. The figure includes 103,100 tonnes of arabica and 247,300 tonnes of the robusta variety, it said.

The rise in the estimate is mainly due to the officials surveying new areas under the crop in traditional growing regions, the board said, without elaborating.
 

"This post blossom estimations were made" in May and "crop losses, if any, after May 2017 will be taken into account at the time of post monsoon estimation," it said.

The government's prediction compares with an estimate of 300,000 tonnes output in the year that started on October 1, made by A L R M Nagappan, chairman of the coffee committee at the United Planters' Association of Southern India, in August. Nagappan saw production falling to an eight-year low on prolonged dry weather in key growing areas.

India's four-month rainy period, which accounts for more than 70 per cent of the country's annual precipitation, missed a normal rain forecast this year. Showers totaled 841.3 millimeters, or 95 per cent of the 50-year average -- in the season, according to the India Meteorological Department. A monsoon is defined as normal when rain is between 96 per cent and 104 per cent of the long-term average.