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The lockdown has brought down coffee exports by 26,400 tonnes during the two-month period.
In a written reply to Shobha Karandlaje, Member of Parliament from Udupi-Chikmagaluru Lok Sabha constituency on Monday, Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, said that coffee exports declined by about 26,400 tonnes between March 25 to May 31, as per the export permits issued by the Coffee Board and inputs received from exporters.
Low demand
He said the demand for coffee is down since April in the major markets due to Covid-19 pandemic.
The Minister also informed the House that coffee exports declined by 7.40 per cent in terms of quantity and 10.32 per cent in terms of export value realisation during 2019-20 as compared to 2018-19.
Referring to the assessment made by the Coffee Board, he said while harvesting was completed to a large extent by March, some estate operations were delayed, which may have an impact on the coffee crop.
“However, 95 per cent of the coffee roasting units and instant coffee manufacturing units were closed due to the lockdown. Due to restrictions imposed, demand from hotels, restaurants, cafe businesses and offices, which are the major out-of-home customers, was impacted,” he said.
The government and Reserve Bank of India have taken various policy measures to ease the financial stress caused by Covid-19 disruptions, by providing relief on debt servicing and improving access to working capital, he said.
Flood impact
To a query on coffee production, Goyal said coffee production has been impacted due to heavy rains, floods and landslides in major coffee growing regions of Karnataka, Kerala and parts of Tamil Nadu during the last two years.
While coffee production during 2018-19 had shown an increase of 1.10 per cent over 2017-18, it declined by 6.73 per cent during 2019-20. Coffee production, which stood at 3.19 lakh tonnes in 2018-19, came down to 2.98 lakh tonnes in 2019-20, he added.
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