India’s coffee exports rose 43 per cent in dollar value terms to $926.55 million in the first half of calendar year 2024 on increase in global prices and aided by a 13 per cent growth in volume. In the same period last year, coffee exports stood at $647.76 million.

In rupee value terms, exports during January-June period were up 44 per cent at ₹7,713.74 crore over ₹5,329 crore in the same period a year ago. Indian exporters realised a higher per unit value of ₹3.16 lakh per tonne, an increase of 28 per cent over previous year’s ₹2.46 lakh per tonne on rising global prices.

As per Coffee Board’s latest, data export permits issued during January-June period of 2024 were up 13 per cent at 2.44 lakh tonnes against 2.16 lakh tonnes a year ago on rising demand from the European Union, the largest destination for the Indian coffee. India exported 3.76 lakh tonnes of coffee valued at $1.15 billion during 2023.

Building inventory

According to exporters, European buyers are building inventory ahead of the deadline of December 30, 2024, for compliance to the proposed European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) norms, resulting in higher demand. The EUDR is aimed at minimising the importation of products linked to deforestation and requires strict due diligence and traceability measures for commodities such as coffee. It is likely to have an impact on the Indian exports.

The EUDR norms, which apply to a wide range of products, including cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya, and wood, requires businesses to comply with its requirements by December 30, 2024.

The rise in export volumes is led by the growth in demand for the robusta cherry variety followed by robusta parchment, whereas the arabicas, both parchment and cherry, registered a marginal dip in shipments during the period.

Robusta cherry volumes were up at 1.17 lakh tonnes during January-June period, an increase of around 22 per cent over previous year’s 96,375 tonnes. The robusta parchment shipments were up marginally at 17,679 tonnes over previous year’s 17,664 tonnes.

Instant coffee exports up 8%

The arabica parchment shipments were marginally down at 25,680 tonnes from the same period last year’s 26,558 tonnes. Similarly, the arabica cherry exports were down at 4,529 tonnes from the previous year’s 5,261 tonnes.

However, instant coffee exports were up by around 8 per cent at 23,573 tonnes during January-June, over 21,837 tonnes a year ago. The re-exports of coffees were also up 6.6 per cent at 55,166 tonnes against 48,469 tonnes a year ago. India imports raw coffee to re-export them as value-added coffees.

Italy continued to be the largest buyer with volumes of 51,910 tonnes, followed by Germany at 30,768 tonnes. United Arab Emirates was the third largest destination for Indian coffee shipments during January-June period at 13,640 tonnes, followed by Russian Federation at 13,599 tonnes.

India, the seventh largest producer of coffees, is the fifth largest exporter of the commodity. Over two-thirds of the close to 3.5 lakh tonnes of coffees produced in the country are exported.