The revised upward estimate was largely due to the increased area of coffee cultivation which was not taken into account by the board earlier."The Coffee Board had to take some realities into consideration," Ashok David, the board's acting chairman told Reuters on the sidelines of a growers' conference in the southern Indian city at Bangalore.

"The revision had to be done as we found a 20,000 hectare increase in the total area under coffee cultivation...mostly in (the southern states of) Karnataka and Kerala," he said. David also said that India had entered the 1999/2000 crop year with a carryover stock of 19,000 tonnes. Coffee Board deputy director S Radhakrishnan said that the revised estimates included some 97,000 tonnes of arabicas and 168,000 tonnes of robustas.

The Coffee Board's earlier estimate of 230,000included 96,865 tonnes of arabicas and 133,135 tonnes of robustas.

"The increase is mainly in robustas grown in Karnataka and Kerala," Radhakrishnan said. "Besides the increase in growing area, we also considered the amount of coffee that has already been exported and the size of the new crop."

Radhakrishnan said the Coffee Board had confirmation for 204,000 tonnes of coffee exports for the 1998/99 crop year. More confirmations will come in as the season has only recently ended. India's domestic coffee consumption is estimated at about 55,000 tonnes.