Recovering prices at the international level has pushed up Indian coffee exports during the beginning of the financial year 2008-09.
Coffee prices that hit the roof during February-March have started declining in the last week of March and again picked-up in the first week of April.
?Now, international buyers are paying more prices that have been increasing exports in recent weeks,? said PJ Suresh Babu of Bangalore-based Chaitanya Coffee.
The international trend has reflected in the weekly coffee auction at the coffee board on Thursday. The prices of both, Robusta and Arabica were sold higher by Rs 2-4 per kg, compared to its prices in the last week?s auction, sources in auctioneer Carritt Moran said.
The coffee prices in the global market, according to the International Coffee Organisation composite indicator, started declining after touching 152.85 cent per lb on March 3. The average price of coffee was maintained above 130 cent per lb till March 18 but the prices started declining below 123 cent per lb during the last ten days of March. The ICO composite indicator price stood at 122.93 cent on March 31, impacting market sentiments of exporting countries, including India. The prices started gaining momentum from April first week. From 122.97 cent per lb on, the ICO composite indicator price touched 132.05 cent on April 17.
According to statistics available from the Coffee Board, coffee exports till date (as on April 16) in the current financial year touched 9,650 tonne, up from 9,528 tonne in the same period a year ago. During the period, the unit value of coffee also increased to Rs 1,06,704 per tonne from Rs 83,963, while foreign exchange through coffee exports also surged to Rs 102.97 crore from Rs 80 crore.
On the lines of the international trend, Suresh Babu said robusta cherry was sold at Rs 89 per kg, while robusta parchment fetched a premium price of 127 per kg in the Thursday auction. Arabica cherry AB also was higher at Rs 108-110 per kg, while arabica plantation ruled at 120-122 per kg.
Auctioneer J Thomas & Company brought around 1.20 lakh kg for Thursday auction while Carritt Moran showcased 43,970 kg followed by Forbes Ewart & Figgis at 37,770 kg. Put together, about 30% of the commodity was sold in the auction.