India's January-August coffee exports flat at 2.62 lakh tonne

Coffee exports from India remained flat at 2,62,764 tonne in January-August 2018 on fall in shipments of robusta varieties and instant coffee, according to the Coffee Board. The country had shipped 2,63,269 tonne of coffee in the same period of 2017.

India is Asia's third-largest producer and exporter of coffee. As per the Board's data, the coffee exports remained flat both in terms of volume and value.

In value terms, total coffee exports were at Rs 4,243.77 crore during January-August 2018 as against Rs 4,360.34 crore in the year-ago period.

The unit per value realisation was also lower at Rs 1,61,504 per tonne as against Rs 1,65,623 per tonne in the said period.

Much of the shipments were for Italy (62,937 tonne), Germany (22,339 tonne), Belgium (15,571 tonne) and Russia (14,927 tonne) and Indonesia (11,961 tonne), the data showed.

Of the total coffee shipments, the export of robusta varieties dropped 11 percent to 1,38,317 tonne from 1,55,474 tonne in the year-ago period. Even export of instant coffee dropped sharply to 19,106 tonne from 34,089 tonne in the said period.

However, the shipment of arabica varieties rose 19.07 percent to 43,668 tonne from 36,673 tonne in the year-ago period.

Re-export of coffee increased substantially to 61,439 tonne from 36,791 tonne in the said period. CCL Products India, Allanasons Pvt Ltd, Olam Agro India, Coffee Day Global Ltd, Tata Coffee are the leading exporters of coffee.