Revenue from coffee exports rises 33%

Realisation from Indian coffee exports (permit issued), in rupee terms, has increased 33.04 per cent to Rs 1,789.73 crore in the first eight months of the calendar year 2008 as against Rs 1,345.20 crore worth coffee exported in the same period last year, according to the Coffee Board statistics.

In dollar terms, it has risen 29.93 per cent at $412.70 million last year. As for the unit value realisation, it is up 25.81 per cent to Rs 1,07,513 per tonne.

Coffee exports (permit issued) for the first eight months has risen 5.74 per cent to 166,465 tonnes, according to the Coffee Board statistics.
 

TASTING SWEET Coffee exports in January-August
Item	2007	2008	% chg
Arabica Parchment	24,454	32,686	33.66
Arabica Cherry	8,313	6,318	-24.00
Robusta Parchment	16,815	14,857	-11.64
Robusta Cherry	66,305	68,933	3.96
Instant coffee	41,535	43,671	5.14
Total	157,427	166,465	5.74
Figures in tonnes                                         Source: Coffee Board

B L Harish, proprietor of Blan Coffee, Kushalnagar, said, “The August prices of Arabica parchment fluctuated in the range of Rs 5,300 to Rs 5,600 per 50 kg bag, in tune with the international coffee prices. Exporters such as Allana Sons, E-com, SLN and Madhu Jayanti were active farm gate buyers.”

Not much of coffee is left at the farm gate and grower are asking high prices, especially of the Arabica variety, he added.

General Commodities topped the list of exporters with 24,720.40 tonnes, followed by CCL Products-India 13,507.40 tonnes, Allana Sons 12,966.90 tonnes, Tata Coffee 12,867.40 tonnes and Nestle India 11,717.1 tonnes.

As for the global coffee exports, the International Coffee Organisation said in the first 10 months of coffee year 2007-08 (October to July) exports have fallen 4.2 per cent to 79.3 million bags. Exports of Arabica in the period was just under 62 million bags compared to 64.3 million bags last year; whereas Robusta exports amounted to 32.3 million bags against 34.7 million bags.