Board slashes crop estimate by 5%.
Unfavourable weather conditions and berry borer menace, mainly in the coffee-growing zones of Karnataka have hit India’s coffee production for October 2008-March 2009 season. The crop is likely to drop 5 per cent to 262,000 tonnes from the earlier estimates of 276,000 tonnes.
The drop in output, coupled with lower global demand for coffee, has resulted in coffee exports falling 17 per cent during January-April 2009. Total exports were 73,288 tonnes during this period, compared to 89,651 tonnes in the year-ago period, according to provisional data released by the Coffee Board.
“Our post-blossom survey estimated the new crop to be 293,000 tonnes for crop year October 2008 - March 2009. We revised it down 5.6 per cent, to 276,000 tonnes in the post-monsoon survey in November 2008. However, once harvesting began we got reports from parts of Karnataka, mainly Chikmagalur, the crop was below estimates due to untimely rains, non-availability of fertiliser leading to berry drop. So, after the harvest we have cut estimates to 262,000 tonnes,” said Coffee Board chairman G V Krishna Rau.
Arabica and robusta output break up is estimated at 79,500 tonnes and 182,800 tonnes respectively.
Among the states, only Karnataka zones have shown a major decline between post-blossom and revised post-monsoon estimates to the extent of 30,310 tonnes (14.15 per cent). However, in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and non-traditional coffee-growing areas including north eastern region the reduction is negligible, said Rau.
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Among the three coffee-growing districts of Karnataka, Hassan has shown the highest reduction of 28.16 per cent (7,900 tonnes) followed by Chikmagalur at 20.14 per cent (14,450 tonnes) and Kodagu at 6.96 per cent (7,960 tonnes). Karnataka accounts for over 70 per cent of the country’s coffee output. The revised post-monsoon crop estimate for Karnataka is placed at 183,860 tonnes.
The major factors that affected production of 2008-09 crops were the rain on the blossom day and subsequent heavy monsoon rains followed by off-season rains leading to berry drop during October and November 2008 in affected zones of Karnataka, according to Coffee Board reports.
The drop in output was on expected lines and this will continue to hit coffee exports from India, said Ramesh Raja, president, Coffee Exporters Association of India. Demand for coffee from Russia and Ukraine has come down sharply.
Offtake from European markets has also fallen. “The situation is not going to improve in the short term. Shipments are unlikely to pick up in the next few months. We will have to wait for the new crop in December, to see any improvement on the exports front,” he added. India ships abroad 70-75 per cent of the coffee grown in the country.