Indian coffee exporters are eagerly waiting for the harvest of the arabica crop which is likely to set in early because of intense rains over the last few weeks in the arabica growing regions of Karnataka, the largest producer in the country.

Early harvest of arabica could be good for exports as the shipments of this variety have been down this year compared with robusta, which accounts for 70 per cent of the Indian coffee production.

“Usually, the arabica harvest starts by the end of November and goes into full swing in December. This time, it could be a bit early because of rains,” said Anil Bhandari, a major coffee grower. As per Coffee Board data for the period from January 1 to September 12, 2017, shipments are up by over 5 per cent compared with same period last year at 2,80,447 tonnes.

The increase has come from export of robusta cherry and parchment varieties.”We expected shipments to be sluggish in the second half of 2017. But improved availability of robusta has changed the calculations. We are getting a good supply of robusta from Kerala.The trend may continue for a few more weeks,” said Ramesh Rajah, president of Coffee Exporters Association of India.

But growers are not very optimistic about the crop, particularly robusta, for the next year.Prolonged dry weather early in the year has hit the robusta crop.”We expect around 3 lakh tonnes totally ­ 90,000 tonnes of arabica and 2,10,000 tonnes of robusta. With prices of black pepper also down, we have been robbed off our extra income,” said MM Chengappa, chairman of Karnataka Planters’ Association.Indian coffee production in 201617 stood at 3,16,700 tonnes.

source: http://www.economictimes.indiatimes.com / The Economic Times / ET Home> Markets> Commodities> News / by P.K.Krishnakumar, ET Bureau / September 14th, 2017