The downward slide in coffee prices ahead of the harvest of the 2015-16 crop has left the Indian growers worried, who feel that the trend would hurt their realisations amidst rising production costs.

“Coffee prices are at a 20-month low. The decline in prices is a cause for worry and concern,” said K Kurian, Chairman, Karnataka Planters Association, ahead of the annual meet of the growers body on Tuesday.

The harvest of arabicas is in progress and has commenced early by a fortnight this year due to the timely arrival of rains. Prices of Arabica parchment are hovering in the range of ₹7,500-7,700 per 50-kg bag, lower by about 20 per cent over last year.

While the coffee prices have dropped, the input costs have gone up significantly over the years, thereby hurting the realisations, Kurian said. Besides coffee, prices of other major commodities such as tea and rubber have also witnessed decline triggering worries for the growers. Pepper, grown as an intercrop with coffee, has been the only saving grace for growers.

N Dharmaraj, President of Upasi, said that the decline in coffee and tea prices should not be taken lightly as the prices are highly volatile.

Kurian further demanded that the governments – both Centre and States – share the social and welfare costs incurred by the planters, thereby providing some relief to the growers. An inter ministerial committee had recommended sharing of the social costs by the Centre, State government and Plantations in the ratio of 50:30:20. A joint parliamentary standing committee report has also recommended sharing of social costs.

Further Kurian said that high interest rates, unserviceable and unflexible loans are adding to the challenges faced by growers such as changing weather pattern and low productivity and pest incidence among others.

“We have to seriously increase our productivity of our coffee plantations to be sustainable and remain viable,” Kurian said. High yielding, disease free and drought-tolerant planting material coupled with good agricultural practices including mechanisation of estate operations reducing unnecessary costs are absolute necessary to boost the productivity, he added.

India’s combined productivity is pegged at 799 kg per hectare with arabicas at 564 kg/ha and robusta at 1,011 kg/ha. Vietnam’s robusta productivity stands at 2,188 kg/ha and Brazil’s arabica productivity is 1,257 kg/ha.

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