Coffee exports drop 27% in Jan on sluggish prices

Coffee exports fell over 27% to 18,475 tonnes in January due to volatile global prices and lower supplies of the old crop.

The country had shipped 25,355 tonnes of coffee in the same month last year, according to Coffee Board's latest data.

"Our traders are exercising caution as global prices have been very volatile in past two months due to production concerns in Brazil, the world's biggest coffee producer," a senior Coffee Board official told PTI.

Besides, the supply of old crop in the domestic market is getting exhausted and farmers are not releasing new crop as they are concerned over the sluggish price trend, the official said.

Harvesting of arabica variety of coffee has got over and robusta is underway. Farmers are awaiting good prices to sell their new crop in the market, the official added.

In the global market, arabica rates at present are ruling down at 165 cents per pound, while that of robusta at USD 1,950 per tonne.

As per the Board's latest data, arabica exports fell by 47% to 4,826 tonnes in January this year from 9,120 tonnes in the year-ago period, while that of robusta declined by 30.5% to 5,736 tonnes from 9,693 tonnes in the same period.

However, the shipment of instant coffee more than doubled to 5,328 tonnes in January this year as against 2,182 tonnes in the same month of corresponding year.

Maximum exports were to Italy (3,785 tonnes), followed by Turkey (1,645 tonnes), Germany (1,460 tonnes) and Ukrain (999 tonnes) in January this year.

The country's overall coffee production is estimated to be reasonably good at 3.31 lakh tonnes this year as against 3.04 lakh tonnes last year, according to Coffee Board.