Indian arabica shipments rise 60% in Jan-Feb on good demand

Per Coffee Board data, the permits issued during the first two months were up 64 per cent for premium arabica parchment variety at 9,881 tonnes over 6,025 tonnes a year ago. Similarly, the arabica cherry exports were up 60 per cent at 2,636 tonnes (1,647 tonnes). The shipments of robustas are down by a quarter during January-February. Robusta parchment exports were down at 2,348 tonnes (3,114 tonnes), while the robusta cherry shipments stood lower at 22,772 tonnes (30,371 tonnes). Re-exports of coffee were up 11 per cent during January-February at 15,183 tonnes (13,635 tonnes). The overall shipments during January-February were down by a tenth at 60,089 tonnes (66,864 tonnes), the data showed.

Ramesh Rajah, President, Coffee Exporters Association, said the overseas buyers are resorting to hand-to-mouth buying as prices continue to rule high. Arabica cherry will receive more movement because of the developments in Brazil, he said. Brazil is the largest producer of arabicas, while Vietnam is the largest producer of robusta beans. Climate issues in both these top producers have impacted the production resulting in a surge in coffee prices globally. Brazil shipments have been high and its very surprising given that the crop was low. So everybody’s assuming that they are drawing down heavily on stocks, Rajah said. Brazil exported a record 50.44 million bags (of 60 kg each) during 2024 — up 28 per cent over previous year.

As coffee prices stay volatile at elevated levels, there is a fear in the trade circles that there will be a shift from the high-priced arabicas to the less expensive robustas. “Everybody is anticipating that there will be a lot of demand for robustas,” he said.

While the harvest of arabicas has ended, the picking of robustas is seen in the final stages. For the current financial year 2024-25, Indian coffee shipments in value terms for the April-January period have witnessed a 43 per cent increase to $1,362 million over corresponding last year’s $950 million, mainly on higher prices.