India’s exports of arabica coffee fell 26 per cent to 5,482 tonnes in January this year on account of unseasonal rains, which led to a delayed harvest.
The country had exported 7,392 tonnes of the premium variety also called mountain coffee in the year-ago period, Coffee Board data said.
“Arabica exports declined in January 2012 due to unseasonal rains in end-November and early December last year, which resulted in the harvest being delayed by 3-4 weeks,” Coffee Exporters’ Association President, Mr Ramesh Rajah, told PTI.
The supply of arabica is now normal as harvesting of the beans has picked up and supply disruption is not expected this month, he added.
Contrary to this, overseas shipments of robusta rose 12 per cent to 8,319 tonnes last month from 7,450 tonnes in the same period previous year.
Total coffee exports in January 2012 rose marginally to 20,969 tonnes from 20,193 tonnes in the year-ago period.
India mostly exports coffee to Italy, Germany, the Russian Federation, Belgium and Spain.