Coffee exports up 20% in volume in H1 2016

Exports of coffee — both green beans and the instant variety — have jumped by a fifth in volume terms during the first six months of the current calendar year.

However, the volatile prices have impacted realisations, which have been rather flat in dollar terms but saw a marginal increase in rupee terms.

Besides a bigger crop, a steady increase in re-exports has also contributed to the surge in volumes during the period, Coffee Board officials said.

The surge in shipments was largely led by strong demand for varieties such as robusta cherry and arabica parchment, and also the re-export of instant coffees.

Exporters, however, are sceptical about sustaining growth in the year ahead as order bookings have slowed in the recent past. “We expect the second half of calendar 2016 to be slower as orders have dried up,” said Ramesh Rajah, President of the Coffee Exporters Association.

Though prices have moved up slightly in recent weeks on concerns over the weather influencing the crop in Brazil, the world’s largest producer, exporters are not sure of benefiting.

“Customers have been asking for a lower price. Also due to the weaker economic conditions in major markets, there's not much of buying interest,” Rajah said.

Exports of Arabica parchment, the premium and mild coffee variety, surged 27 per cent to 29,592 tonnes during the January-June period this year as against 23,319 tonnes in the corresponding last year.

However, the increase in shipments of arabica cherry was marginal at 8,029 tonnes (7,907 tonnes).

Robusta cherry volumes stood at 99,675 tonnes, up 35 per cent over the 73,727 tonnes in the corresponding period last year.

However, robusta parchment volumes fell 23 per cent to 16,310 tonnes (21,170 tonnes). Re-exported coffee volumes surged 26 per cent to 42,137 tonnes against 33,431 tonnes in the year-ago period. After two years of good harvest, Indian coffee is facing an off-year for the 2016-17 season starting October. Prolonged dry spell coupled with drought like conditions in some regions is seen impacting the crop, especially robustas for 2016-17 season.

The Coffee Board is expected to come out with initial blossom estimates for the 2016-17 crop sometime next week. The Board had estimated the 2015-16 crop at 3.5 lakh tonnes, a seven per cent increase over the previous year’s 3.27 lakh tonnes.

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