Shipments rise for first time this year; drop in Arabicas offset by robusta and soluble varieties

Bengaluru :

The Indian coffee exports, for the current calendar year, have registered a marginal growth for the first time, on increase in shipments of robustas and the soluble or instant variety.

According to provisional numbers, total export permits issued by the State-run Coffee Board have exceeded the last year’s levels for the first time and were pegged at 2.159 lakh tonnes (lt) for the January 1 to August 19 period against 2.151 lt in the corresponding period last year.

However, the green bean coffee exports continue to trail the last year’s levels largely on account of a 33 per cent drop in Arabica shipments, despite the robustas registering a 21 per cent growth.

Green coffee trails
Also, the soluble coffee shipments measured in green bean equivalent stood at 60,842 tonnes, including the re-exports that grew 18 per cent for the period.

“We expect the shipments to maintain a small growth for the rest of the year,” said Ramesh Rajah, President of Coffee Exporters Association.

“The coffee held back by the growers anticipating better prices, would come out into the market over the next couple of months before the arrival of new crop,” he added.

Currency volatility
Rajah attributed the trailing trend in green coffee shipments to the declining production of the Arabicas.

Also, the Indian exporters are facing challenge from the devaluation of currencies by the top two coffee producing nations – Brazil and Vietnam, which has made their exports competitive.

The Brazilian Real and Vietnamese Dong have weakened by around 15 per cent against the dollar over the past year, while the Rupee has fallen by over 8 per cent.

Crop estimates
The Arabica harvest this year is likely to be advanced by a couple of weeks to September as the early rains have boosted the prospects for coffee.

The Board, in its initial estimates, pegged the crop size for 2015-16 crop year starting October at 3.55 lt – a growth of 8.75 per cent over previous year’s 3.27 lt.

Arabica crop size for 2015-16 is pegged at 1.10 lt – up 12.55 per cent over 2014-15’s final estimate of 97,700 tonnes.

Robusta crop size is estimated to expand to 2.45 lt, a growth of 7 per cent over previous year.

Export markets
C Rajendra Prasad, Chairman and Managing Director of CCL Products Ltd, the country’s largest instant coffee exporter said demand continues to be strong both from traditional markets such as Russia and Europe and even from the new geographies such as the United States.

CCL Products, which exports to about 56 countries, has so far shipped about 24,741 tonnes of instant coffees in the current calendar year. Tata Coffee has exported about 10,207 tonnes, while Nestle with 8895 tonnes were the other large instant coffee exporters.

Italy has been the largest buyer of Indian coffee at 55,378 tonnes, so far, followed by Germany at 20,537 tonnes and Russian Federation at 14,526 tonnes.

source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> Agri-Biz / by Vishwanath Kulkarni / August 20th, 2015

· International destination Mumbai ensures substantial participation of Indian & International companies
· Global Market for RTD Tea & Coffee growing at a healthy rate annually
· Buying delegations from Iran, Dubai, Nepal, Russia & UK planned

Mumbai, the commercial capital of India, shall host the 3rd World Tea & Coffee Expo 2015, India’s only International trade show dedicated to the Tea & Coffee Sectors. With over 100 exhibitors from 10 countries and dedicated country pavilions, this International Tea Coffee show in India promises an even bigger presence to provide the perfect environment for the hot beverage industry to meet face-to-face and develop real business opportunities. The 2015 edition is to be held at Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai INDIA from 1st Oct to 3rd Oct 2015 and shall cater to a prospective visitor base of over 6000 buyers from across India and abroad – up from the visitor count of 4100 witnessed during the second edition held in Sept 2014.

In addition to a display of innovative and exotic products, machineries, accessories, technologies, vending machines and certifications from the entire gamut of the Hot beverage sector, additional activities planned at the Expo include: B2B match-making, Workshops & Championships, a High Level 2-day Conference by Industry leaders, academicians and policy makers, export/import guidance kiosks, Knowledge zone etc.

Says Priti M Kapadia, Director, Sentinel Exhibitions Asia P Ltd, the organizer of the show, “Mumbai is a city where the best and the most serious converge for doing business. Mumbai attracts the serious players from the length & breadth of India and also from aboard which results in high value deals and alliances. The 2015 edition of this unique trade fair will also see buying delegations from Iran, Nepal, Dubai, and Russia.

The stupendous success of the 2nd World Tea & Coffee Expo 2014 @ Mumbai, INDIA in September 2014, has established this Expo as the official Industry show with just two editions under its belt. This is India’s only International Trade Show dedicated to Tea & Coffee and is supported by Ministry of Commerce through Tea Board of India and leading associations and chambers from across the world have pledged their support to this important industry initiative.

The Expo offers huge potential for appointing Distributors, Bulk orders, joint ventures, franchising, networking, knowledge-sharing, meeting government officials, marketing alliances, and overall branding. WTCE has become the platform for the launch of new and exotic tea & coffee products. For a visitor, Workshops and seminars are the other important part of the event, which will help them to understand the depth of this industry, gain knowledge, understand benefits and also to taste the products on the spot. Skill development shall be the main theme of the workshops which will be conducted by experts in the field. Adds Kapadia, “For the International Tea & Coffee conference, we are in touch with a number of international speakers and some of them have already confirmed.”

The global market for RTD (Ready-to-Drink) Tea and Coffee is expected to reach $125 billion by 2017 with an annual growth rate of 11%. The Asia-Pacific region is the largest market and also showing maximum growth. To capitalize on the growth trend in the RTD Tea & Coffee, companies are investing heavily on modernization of machineries, Quality Up-gradation & Product Diversification as also branding, innovations and market expansion. The Upscale café culture has contributed significantly to the growth of both Coffee & Tea in India with exotic branding and packaging coupled with a dynamic product mix are driving the demand. Drinking habits and lifestyles have changed in the last 8 – 10 years and people are now willing to pay more for quality. India is the 2nd largest producer, 2nd largest consumer and 4th largest exporter of tea with a 23% share in global production, a 12% share in world tea exports and a per capita consumption of about 725 grams (2013-14 figures). The 6th largest producer of the coffee in the world, India exports more than 80% of its coffee presently but a rising domestic demand at 7% annually may change this scenario completely over the next decade or so. The trend towards health consciousness, coupled with increased competitive pressure, will further push new product development in the next five years, which will in turn boost industry demand. Most International companies which have entered India are doing brisk business and expanding their operations. The World Tea & Coffee Expo is the catalyst for International companies to target this huge market.

WTCE will determine trends, create awareness on optimization of product lines, enable networking with peers, industry stalwarts, academia and government officials. The vision of the World Tea & Coffee Expo is to facilitate and expand the Indian Beverage business by providing all sourcing requirements under one roof. Organized by Sentinel Exhibitions Asia P Ltd [SEA], a part of the Mumbai-headquartered Sentinel media group, WTCE is established as the VOICE OF THE INDUSTRY and as the Gateway to Indian markets.

For further information please log onto www.worldteacoffeeexpo.com or call on +91 22 28625133 or email to info@worldteacoffeeexpo.com