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India’s coffee exports for the calendar year 2021 are inching closer to the 4-lakh tonne mark, a record high.
Exporters attribute the record shipments to the carry forward contracts from last year that witnessed muted demand on account of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Coffee Board data available till December 20 showed that exports for the year were over 3.83 lakh tonnes (lt), about 25 per cent higher than 3.06 lt last year. Indian-grown bean shipments stood at 2.94 lt — 34 per cent higher than 2.20 lt last year, while imports for re-exports were up by over 11 per cent at 89,081 tonnes (80,125 tonnes).
Ramesh Rajah, President of the Coffee Exporters Association, attributed the record performance to the rolled over contracts and pent-up demand from the previous year. Also, the growth in instant coffee buoyed the overall shipments.
Rajah said last year, export performance was lacklustre as shipments were down by 12 per cent with the spread of Covid-19 and lockdowns imposed by various countries to contain the pandemic. It impacted demand sharply, hurting exports.
Omicron threat
“Lot of contracts were postponed to 2021. Demand per se in 2021 was a bit low,” Rajah said adding that exporters are keenly watching the emerging situation in various countries due to the spread of Omicron. Though countries such as the Netherlands and a few others have imposed lockdown, a clarity on the demand for 2022 would emerge sometime in the early part of the new year, Rajah said.
“Orders for 2022 are still weak, while the surge in freight rates has make the coffees expensive. The market is facing consumer resistance,” Rajah said. Though the freight rates have stabilised at elevated levels, they are still higher by around 300 per cent over the previous year. For destinations such as the United States, the increase in freight is much higher, while for countries like Japan, they are a bit low, he said.
Top buyers
Italy continued to be the largest buyer of Indian coffees with purchase exceeding 70,717 tonnes, followed by Germany at over 33,630 tonnes. Belgium was the third-largest buyer at over 29,320 tonnes, followed by Russian Federation at over 25,615 tonnes.
Russia was the largest buyer of instant coffees at 22,892 tonnes, followed by Poland at 10,792 tonnes and Malaysia at 7,835 tonnes.
Jordan, the fifth-largest buyer of Indian coffees at over 13,582 tonnes was the biggest buyer of arabicas at over 7,578 tonnes closely followed by Belgium at 7,385 tonnes. Italy was the largest buyer of robustas at over 65,003 tonnes, followed by Germany at 25,997 tonnes.
Crop size
For the 2021-22 crop year, the Coffee Board in its early estimates had pegged the output at 3.69 lt, including 1.08 lt of arabica and 2.60 lt of robusta. The excess rains during monsoon and post-monsoon period have impacted the arabica output, which the trade has pegged at around 70,000 tonnes. The Board is yet to come out with the post-monsoon estimates.
The USDA India Post has pegged the 2021-22 output at 3.31 lt, comprising 76,800 tonnes of arabicas and 2.25 lt of robustas.
In its recent report, the USDA said the unseasonal rains were expected to impact the arabica yields by 2 per cent, while robusta yields were likely to rise to 9 per cent, resulting in overall yield improvement of around 6 per cent over last year.
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