Coffee exports up marginally in first 6 months

As on June 30, of the total 132,846 tonnes permitted to be exported, Arabica Parchment constituted 28,002 tonnes (20,238 tonnes exported last year), Arabica Cherry 5,226 tonnes (7,402 tonnes), Robusta Parchment 11,818 tonnes (13,351 tonnes), Robusta Cherry 54,889 tonnes (54,632 tonnes) and Instant coffee 20,277 tonnes (26,538 tonnes).

Provisional re-exports stood at 12,634 tonnes as against 6,738 tonnes in the same period last year.

B L Harish, proprietor of Blan Coffee, Kushalnagar, said, "Coffee exports from the plantation belt were normal for six months with Allana Sons, Madhu Jayanti, Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company, SLN Coffee and Ned Coffee competing with each other to honour their commitments."

Export realisation in rupee terms was up 28.58 per cent at Rs 1,400.92 crore for six months as against Rs 1,089.47 crore in the same period last year. In US dollar terms, it is 34.31 per cent higher realisation at $345.96 million as against $257.58 million last year. As for the unit value realisation, it is Rs 105,454 per tonne, up 24.8 per cent on Rs 84,521 per tonne fetched last year.

General Commodities topped the list of exporters with 19,483.2 tonnes (Arabica 6,385 tonnes, Robusta 13,098.2 tonnes) and is followed by Allana Sons clocking 10,603.4 tonnes (Arabica 6,146.1, Robusta 4,457.3 tonnes), Tata Coffee 10,440.5 tonnes (Arabica 812.4 tonnes, Robusta 10,440.5 tonnes) and Nestle India exported only Robusta 9,196.1 tonnes.

Among the buyers of Indian coffees, Italy continues to be the top importer with a purchase of 34,440.7 tonnes at the end of six months, followed by Russia 11,722.4 tonnes, Germany 10,473.5 tonnes, Belgium 7,435.3 tonnes, Spain 5646.7 tonnes, Finland 4772.8 tonnes, Croatia 3456 tonnes, Jordan 3179.1 tonnes, Ukraine 3068.3 tonnes and Kuwait 3067.9 tonnes.

World coffee exports stood at 8.1 million bags in May 2008, compared with 8.9 million in May last year. Exports in the first-eight months of coffee year 2007-08 (October 2007 to May 2008) have decreased 4.6 per cent to 63.1 million bags compared to 66.2 million bags in the same period in the last coffee year.

In the 12 months ending May 2008, exports of Arabica totalled 62.4 million bags compared to 63.6 million bags last year; whereas Robusta exports amounted to 32.4 million bags compared to 34.1 million bags.