JOIN USAccording to the Coffee Board, coffee exports at 1.01 lakh tonnes so far during the calendar year was over 33 per cent less than the coffee exports of 1.50 lakh tonnes in the same period of last fiscal.
Coffee orders primarily took a hit due to higher prices of Indian coffee, which is currently quoting higher by 10-15 per cent as compared to that of Vietnam, Brazil and the US, even though the unit value per tonne of coffee exported stood at Rs 1.08 lakh as against Rs 1.07 lakh in previous period.
As per the abstract of export performance data provided by the Coffee Board, the value of exports stood at Rs 1,095.37 crore ($223.87 million) in January to August 2009 period as compared to Rs 1,610.12 crore ($396.71 million) in the previous year period.
According to specific varieties, while arabica exports dipped by about 38 per cent to 22,728 tonnes between January and July this year from 36,529 tonnes in the year-ago period, the shipment of robusta coffee also declined to 66,157 tonnes against 75,279 tonnes in the last year, Coffee Board said.
Similarly, the export of instant coffee fell to 17,646 tonnes from 23,751 tonnes in the last year, the data said adding the overseas shipment of value-added products, too, declined to 11,461 tonnes, compared with 14,380 tonnes in the year-ago period.
Even in the coffee year between October 2008 to August 2009 exports saw a 29 per cent decline at 1.38 lakh tonnes as against 1.94 lakh tonnes in the same period of previous coffee year. The value of exports also reflected the decline as it dropped to Rs 1,545 crore ($321.03 million) crore in the current year as against Rs 2,027 crore ($500.37 million) last year.
According to Coffee Board Chairman G V Krishna Rau country’s coffee production too had taken a dip to 2.62 lakh tonne last year as compared to 2.88 lakhs tonnes a year ago.
He attributed labour shortage, unseasonal rain and the industry failing to make adequate use of advanced technology as the main reasons for the failure to enhance coffee production. The industry was facing labour shortage with many of the labourers migrating to other sectors like mining, construction due to higher wages.