India's coffee exports down by 10% in FY13

Fall is shipments was mostly because of falling global prices of arabica variety plus domestic stocks were not enough for exports

India's coffee exports during the 2012-13 fiscal slipped below last year's record level by 10% to 310,612 tonnes due to weak global prices and sluggish domestic stocks, according to the Coffee Board.

The country's coffee exports had touched an all-time high of 344,356 tonnes in the previous financial year as rising prices prompted traders to sell even their old stock, it said.

"The performance of coffee exports in 2012-13 has been fairly good. We have crossed our target of 2.90 lakh tonnes. Yes, exports have slightly lowered as compared to the record 2011-12 level," a senior Coffee Board official told PTI.

The fall is shipments was mostly because of falling global prices of arabica variety plus domestic stocks were not enough for export purpose as much of the old coffee stock got depleted in 2011-12, the official said.

According to the Coffee Board, coffee shipments during the 2012-13 fiscal dropped in value terms also to Rs 4,737.02 crore as compared with Rs 4,836.98 crore in the previous year.

However, the export realisation remained slightly higher at Rs 1,52,506 per tonne as against Rs 1,40,464 per tonne in the review period, it added.

India largely exports coffee to Italy, Germany, Russian Federation among others. Besides coffee bean, the country also exports instant coffee.

The Board has pegged coffee production at 315,500 tonne in the 2012-13 crop year (October-September), a marginal increase of 1,500 tonne over the final estimate of 314,000 tonne in 2011-12.