World coffee exports declined by 2 per cent to 41.5 million bags in the first five months of the current coffee year, despite a rise in shipments in February, International Coffee Organisation (ICO) has said.
The worldwide coffee shipments stood at 42.3 million bags (of 60 kg each), in the same period of the 2010-11 coffee year, the global body on coffee said. Coffee year runs from October to September.
Global shipments of coffee rose by 7 per cent to 9.32 million bags in February 2012 from 8.67 million bags in the year-ago period.
According to market analysts, world coffee shipments have declined from the start of the current season due to low opening stocks on account of record shipments in the 2010-11 coffee year and fall in production in the current crop year.
Coffee stocks in exporting countries declined to 17.4 million bags in the 2011-12 season compared to 18.45 million bags in the last season, their lowest levels since ICO began keeping records, the London-based body of coffee exporting and importing countries had said earlier.
Worldwide shipments of coffee rose by 11 per cent to an all-time high of 104.5 million bags in the 2010-11 coffee year from 94.3 million bags in the 2009-10 coffee year.
ICO has also pegged the production in crop year 2011-12 at 128.5 million bags against 134.3 million bags in the 2010-11 crop year, representing a decline of 4.3 per cent.
The organisation has attributed the decline to the biennial cycle for arabica in Brazil and a fall in output in all other coffee-producing regions, with the exception of Africa.
The low opening stock and a decline in output has been affecting the shipments of coffee right from the first month of the current coffee year, analysts said.
Shipments of the brew declined by 9 per cent to 7.11 million bags in October 2011 against 7.79 million bags in the year-ago period.
Despite a marginal rise in coffee exports in November 2011 to 7.78 million bags from 7.75 million bags in the same period of the previous year, shipments again fell, albeit marginally, to 9.14 million bags in December 2011 from 9.20 million bags in the year-ago period.
Following the downward trend, global shipments of coffee dipped by 10 per cent to 7.99 million bags in January 2012, compared with 8.87 million in January 2011.