Coffee exports decline 7% to 0.28 mt

India’s coffee exports declined seven per cent to 0.28 million tonnes (mt) in the first 10 months of the current calendar year on account of a drop in shipments of the robusta variety, latest Coffee Board data said.

The country had exported 3.04 lakh tonnes of the brew in the January-October period of 2011.

Arabica exports rose eight per cent to 54,048 tonnes in January-October 2012 as against 50,028 tonnes in the same period of 2011, while that of robusta fell 15 per cent to 1,48,869 tonnes from 1,74,371 tonnes during the same period.

In terms of rupee, earnings from coffee exports rose marginally to Rs 4,255.85 crore in January-October this year as against Rs 4,248.06 crore in the year-ago period. In dollar terms, the earnings fell by 9.47 per cent to $839.69 million from $927.60 million in the same period.

In the April-October period of this fiscal, exports of the brew were down at about 1.81 lakh tonnes as against 2.06 lakh tonnes in the same period of fiscal 2011-12.

Coffee exports in the first month of the current coffee year (October-September) were higher at 18,990 tonnes as compared to 18,220 tonnes in the previous corresponding period.

India, the world’s sixth largest coffee exporter, ships the beverage mainly to Italy, Russia, Germany, Belgium, Slovenia and Spain, among others.