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India’s coffee exports falls
India's coffee exports are expected to fall by at least 15% in the current year (calendar year 2007) on account of lower crop and opening stocks and growers holding back arabica variety in the hope of better prices, a top industry official said on Thursday.
India, ranked seventh globally accounting for 4% of world coffee production, exported 2.4 lakh tonne in 2006.
"We think it will be at least 15% down this year," president of India's Coffee Exporters' Association Ramesh Rajah told PTI here in an interview. "We will be surprised if we cross 2.1 lakh tonne."
One of the key reasons he attributed to the projected decline is the lower opening stock.
"Usually, we have an opening stock of around 30,000 tonne. This year the opening stock was below 10,000 tonne. The crop also seems lower than what was earlier estimated, particularly in arabica," Rajah said adding the growers are holding on arabica coffee because of the perception of a shortage.
Rajah said Indian exporters are increasingly facing tough competition from their Vietnamese counterparts in Italy, its biggest market. A strong rupee and high logistics costs are acting as a dampner to the exports. He said governments in major coffee producing countries of Brazil and Vietnam are helping their exporters with assistance. "(Indian) Government should help us in some form to reduce logistics costs," he said.
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