Indian exports are down, but revenues rise

The amount of coffee that India has exported has dropped by around four per cent due to unstable market prices, according to the nation’s Coffee Board.

The total that left the country weighed in at 275,000 tonne, down from the 288,000 that was shipped during the 2013 calendar year. It also represents a dramatic drop from the 312,000 tonnes that India exported just two years ago.

“Exports so far are slightly lower than [this time last year] because of extremely volatile global prices following production concerns,” said one senior Coffee Board official.

The ‘production concerns’ that were alluded to in the statement relate to the dark cloud that has hovered over the Brazilian coffee industry: Due to adverse weather patterns their own production levels have been decimated which caused panic amongst buyers which, in turn, drove up the average price of coffee.

Readers may remember that at one point this year Starbucks withdrew from purchasing coffee for a time period because of the market’s instability.

However despite exporting less India actually stands to make more financially from coffee this year than they did last.

According to some tentative figures India is set to take in some $736m for the 2014 period, an increase on 2013’s total of $698m.

The Coffee Board also released some interesting data alongside the usual numbers concerning weights, prices and overall values.

Italy, it transpires, is the country which imports the most. The famous coffee country welcomes in some 65,000 tonnes from the sub-continent, well over 50% more than Germany who pop up in second (29,000). Russia is the third most popular destination (19,000) for Indian beans and Turkey (13,000) is fourth.