India's coffee exports since the beginning of the marketing year in October doubled on year in value terms to $$836.86 million and jumped 45 percent in volumes to 286,135 tonnnes, exhausting almost all available surplus from 2010/11 crop. The exports in Jan-June period jumped 44 percent on year to 220,072 tonnes due to strong demand from importing countries amid a rally in global prices, data with the state-run Coffee Board showed on Friday.
In the last marketing year ended September 2010 the country had exported 268,989 tonnes. India, the world's fifth biggest producer, accounts for only 4.5 percent of the world's coffee output, but exports 70-80 percent of this. Italy, Russia and Germany are the top three buyers of Indian coffee. "Orders are there, prices are attractive, but we don't have beans to export. We have exported almost the entire available surplus quantity for this year due to good prices," said an official at the country's top exporter, who declined to be named. "Exports in next four-five months would be negligible due to poor availability of beans," he said.
The South Asian country is likely to produce 299,000 tonnes in the year ending September 2011, higher than 289,600 tonnes it had produced a year ago, according to Coffee Board estimates. The harvesting of new coffee crop in 2011/12 season will begin from December.
Throughout the season Indian exporters charged hefty premium over London coffee futures due to the shortage of the produce in the world market, said one dealer with a Bangalore-based coffee exporting firm. World coffee production is forecast at 135.0 million bags in 2011/12, down 2.9 million bags from 2010/11, the US Agriculture Department forecast last week. London September robusta coffee futures gained $26 to finish at $2,498 per tonne on Thursday.
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