Coffee traders may continue to hoard stocks in coming days on the back of negative post-monsoon estimates released by the state-run Coffee Board, trade sources said. Already the Indian coffee prices are more when compared to the international market due to less availability of stock in the domestic market, said P J Suresh Babu of the coffee export firm Chaithanyaa Coffee in Bangalore.
Babu said the growers were hoarding anticipating higher prices, while buyers were waiting for prices to come down on the eve of new arrivals hitting the market. Now the cut in post monsoon estimates would prompt traders to continue to hoard stocks.The post monsoon crop forecast by the board for the year 2007-08 was placed at 2.62 lakh tonne, down by 29,000 tonne from the earlier post blossom projection of 2.91 lakh tonne.
The major reason for huge difference between post blossom and monsoon forecast was attributed to rainfall in main coffee pockets of Karnataka, where the post monsoon projection was placed at 191,575 tonne compared to whopping 212,250 tonne anticipated in post blossom estimates. In Kerala, the post monsoon projection declined to 49,000 tonne from the post blossom estimates of 57,150 tonne. Now, Arabica bean from Tamil Nadu has started hitting the market from the second week of December while exporters and domestic traders are looking for Karnataka crop that is expected to arrive in the market in the second week of January.