India's coffee exports up 18.15% in April-August

NEW DELHI: India's coffee exports rose by 18.15 per cent to 1,63,615 tonnes in the first five months of the ongoing 2016-17 fiscal, despite lower value realisation, according to the Coffee Board.

The country had shipped 1,38,479 tonnes of coffee in the April-August period of 2015-16 fiscal.

As per the board's data, there has been an increase in the export of robust variety of coffee bean as well as instant coffee during the April-August of 2016-17 fiscal.

The overseas sale of coffee rose despite lower export realisation and likely fall in the domestic output in the 2016-17 crop year (October-September).

The export realisation remained lower at Rs 1,49,482 per tonne in the first five months of this year, as against Rs 1,68,408 per tonne in the year-ago period, the data showed.

Coffee production is estimated to decline by 8.75 per cent to 3,20,000 in the 2016-17 crop year when compared with 3,48,000 tonnes in the previous year, due to lack of timely rains and high temperature during the crucial flowering stage.

The main buyers of Indian coffee are Italy, Russia, Germany, Belgium and Turkey which account for over 50 per cent of coffee exports.