India's arabica coffee output is unlikely to be more than 80,000 metric tons in this crop year, partly hurt by unseasonal rainfall during November and December, the Karnataka Planters' Association said Thursday.
The key coffee-growing areas of Chikmagalur, Hassan and Kodagu in the southern state of Karnataka have reported a high drop in their crop harvested, with only a few pockets picking an average crop, Sahadev Balakrishna, chairman of the growers' body, said in a statement.
India's arabica production in the crop year that began Oct. 1 was estimated at 90,000 tons at the start of harvest in December, he added.
Balakrishna said more than 90% of the arabica harvest is estimated to have been completed in Karnataka, the country's largest coffee-producing region.
Arabica is usually harvested from mid-November, but arrivals were delayed this year by around two weeks due to the rains.
In December, the state-run Coffee Board forecast India's 2010-11 arabica output at 95,000 tons. The country produced 94,600 tons of arabica last year.
Arabica is mainly used in premium coffees, while robusta is blended with arabica beans for a lower-cost option for brewed coffee, or processed into instant coffee.
A fall in arabica production will lower India's total coffee output and may hurt shipments from Asia's third-largest coffee exporter and further tighten global supplies at a time when demand is robust and prices are at multi-year highs.
Industry executives estimate India's 2010-11 total coffee output to be around 284,000 tons, down 5% from the Coffee Board's estimate of 299,000 tons.
The country produced 289,600 tons of coffee last year.
The South Asian nation exports about two-thirds of its production. Italy, Russia, Germany and Belgium together account for more than half of India's total coffee shipments.
source: http://coffeeasean.org/details.asp?Object=5&News_ID=18235709
