Coffee exports dip marginally during Jan-Mar

India’s coffee exports declined a marginal 1.1 per cent in the first quarter of the current calendar year, ended March 31. The country exported 85,146 tonnes this year, compared to 86,100 tonnes exported in the corresponding quarter last year. This excludes re-export of imported coffee, which is mostly instant coffee.

“Coffee shipments are slowing down this year mainly due to a fall in prices of the arabica variety and farmers holding back crop. Prices of the variety have declined 27 per cent to Rs 8,000 a bag of 50 kg in March. In the December quarter, prices of arabica were at Rs 11,000 a bag,” said Ramesh Raja, president, Coffee Exporters’ Association.

According to data compiled by the Coffee Board of India, during the first three months, exports of arabica fell 19.6 per cent to 20,309 tonnes, as against 25,260 tonnes in the same period last year. However, the robusta exports have gone up 14.4 per cent to 56,206 tonnes, as against 49,109 tonnes in the year-ago period. Prices of the robusta variety have not changed much during the quarter.

The re-exports of imported coffee after value addition increased 41.3 per cent to 16,575 tonnes in the March quarter this year as against 11,729 tonnes in the year-ago period.

Total exports of all kinds of coffee from India have gone up marginally by 3.9 per cent to 101,721 tonnes, as against 97,829 tonnes in the same period last year.

The first three months of the calendar year always reflect the current crop. The harvest of both arabica and robusta has just ended in all the growing regions. According to estimates by the industry, the harvested crop size is around 290,000 tonnes with robusta contributing about 190,000 tonnes, Raja said.

“We expect the robusta production to decline by about 20 per cent this year, which is lower than the original estimates of the Coffee Board,” said Sahadev Balakrishna, partner, Nethraconda Estates, Chikmagalur. Export of instant coffee increased 7.5 per cent to 25,119 tonnes, as against 23,377 tonnes in the March quarter last year.

“Coffee exports will be less this year, mainly because we had low carryover stocks. Carryover stock declined from about 40,000 tonnes to about 20,000 tonnes. Overall, we expect Indian coffee exports to be lower than last year due to bad economic conditions in Europe, low domestic prices and declining production in the country,” Raja said.

He said another major reason for the declining trend in coffee exports this year is the appreciation of the rupee against the dollar in the last three to four months. The Indian currency has risen from 54 per dollar in December last year to little over 49 per dollar in March this year.