Coffee exports to cross targeted 2.1 LT mark in FY'11Board

NEW DELHI: Coffee exports from the country will cross the targeted 2.1 lakh tonnes mark in the current fiscal by a wide margin, thanks to around 75 per cent jump in shipments in the first half, a top Coffee Board official has said.

"Our target for exports for the current fiscal was 2.1 lakh tonnes. Going by the first six months data, the shipment will far exceed the target," Coffee Board Chairman Jawaaid Akhtar told PTI.

India, Asia's biggest coffee exporter, had exported 2.04 lakh tonnes coffee last fiscal. During April-September period of the current fiscal, India's shipments increased by around 75 per cent to 1.56 lakh tonnes, up from 89,140 tonne in the year-ago period.

Akhtar said that exports would go up substantially due to a few factors, including higher domestic production and a fall in production in other countries, leading to a supply-demand mismatch internationally.

"India sends 70 per cent of its production to the export markets. Naturally, an increased production within helps India to dock more overseas," he said, adding the production for the current year has been estimated at 3.08 lakh tonnes from 2.89 lakh tonnes last year.

Akhtar also said that, according to International Coffee Organisation (ICO), there will be a shortfall of two million bags of coffee in international markets during the year which would pave the way for India to ship more.

According to ICO, global coffee exports in the first eleven months of the coffee year 2009-10 have decreased by 4.4 per cent to 86.34 million bags (60 kg each) compared to 90.35 million bags in the same period in the last coffee year.

India's coffee exports surged by 60 per cent to 2.71 lakh tonnes in the 2009-10 crop year, which ended in September, over 1.78 lakh tonnes in the previous year.