Coffee exports slump by 25% in 2009

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New Delhi: The country’s coffee exports declined by over 25 per cent to 2.53 million bags in 2008-09 crop year, according to the International Coffee Organisation.

Coffee exporters said overseas shipments fell due to comparatively higher prices for the local coffee. “We could not get enough export orders last year as our prices were unreasonably higher by 20-30 per cent compared to (that) in other countries,” All India Coffee Exporters Association President Ramesh Rajah said.

Indian coffee was quoting at 160 cents per pound (0.454 kg) compared with an average international price of 130 cents per pound, he said.

He further said that local coffee became expensive because of limited availability of export quality beans.

The quality of beans suffered due to erratic rainfall though output remained the almost the same as the last year’s, he added.

According to Coffee Board estimate, production was 2.62 lakh tonnes in the 2008-09 crop year against 2.60 lakh tonnes in the previous year.

The crop year runs from October to September.

India exports coffee to Italy, Russia, Germany, Belgium and Spain. The country exported 3.38 million bags in 2007-08 crop year. One bag contains 60 kg of coffee.

According to the ICO data, the world’s coffee trade increased marginally to 97.58 million bags in the last season from 96.08 million bags in 2007-08 coffee year. The shipment s of arabica and robusta varieties stood at 62.01 million bags and 35.57 million bags respectively.

Coffee exports from competitors like Brazil, Vietnam and Indonesia grew in the 2008-09 crop year.