Indonesia's January Sumatra coffee bean exports fall

Robusta coffee bean exports for January from Indonesia's main growing area in Sumatra slumped 64 percent to 6,306.41 tonnes from a year earlier, government trade data showed on Thursday. Indonesia shipped 17,589.10 tonnes of robusta in the same month a year ago, Muchtar Lutfie, research head of the Indonesia Coffee Exporters Association's (AEKI) Lampung branch, told Reuters.
Shipments slumped 25 percent from December's 8,415.40 tonnes. Indonesia is the world's third-largest coffee producer after Brazil and Vietnam, and the world's second largest robusta producer. Robusta - used in instant coffee - mostly grows in Lampung, Bengkulu, and South Sumatra provinces at the southern end of Sumatra island and accounts for more than 80 percent of Indonesia's coffee production. The rest is higher value, aromatic arabica coffee.
A combination of heavy rains and hot weather conditions, played havoc with the flowering season last year, sending stock levels and exports sharply lower. Harvests in Sumatra usually start in March or April, but farmers began picking cherries from January last year after heavy rains forced some areas to harvest early.