India's coffee exports will fall by 15% this year

Sina financial news on the afternoon of January 2 Hong Kong time, according to foreign reports, due to demand affected by the European debt crisis, coupled with reduced inventories, coffee exports of India, the third largest coffee bean grower in Asia, will drop by 15% this year.

Ramesh Rajah, president of the Indian Coffee exporters Association, said in an interview that coffee shipments this year will be lower than the record 346900 tons in 2011, Bloomberg reported. Stimulated by the devaluation of the rupee, coffee exports increased and domestic stocks decreased in December. "the economic situation in Europe is not good, Italy, our biggest buyer, is in trouble, and Greece, our main buyer, is not optimistic," he said. "

The median forecast of 21 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg shows that eurozone economic growth will slow to 0.2% in 2012 from 1.6% in 2011. 70% of the coffee produced in India is mainly sold to Europe.

"buyers are reluctant to carry over inventory, everyone is waiting and the price of Arabica coffee will remain at its current level, and Robusta prices will fall by 10 per cent by March due to increased global production," Rajah said.

Worldwide production of robusta coffee will exceed demand by 2.5 million bags (60kg, 132lb) this quarter, according to Macquarie. Vietnam, the largest exporter of coffee beans for instant drinks, will increase production by 9 per cent to 21.25 million bags this quarter, according to a Bloomberg survey.