India slips to 7th spot in global coffee production

Even as India remains upbeat on surging demand for its coffee beans in the global market, its planters have reasons to worry as their share in the world production slipped to seventh position in 2011-12. “With four per cent (5.3 million bags of 60 kg) share of world production, India slipped to seventh in this coffee year (Oct-Sept) from sixth in 2010-11, as Peru in Latin America climbed up with 4.1 per cent share (5.4 million bags),” a leading planter told IANS here. New players like Vietnam (second) and Indonesia (fourth) in southeast Asia and smaller countries like Ethiopia (fifth) in Africa have also overtaken India in production, thanks to their geological and climatic advantages and state incentives. “Rich volcanic soil, favourable weather conditions through the year, availability of water and lower production costs have enabled these smaller countries remain ahead of India despite four per cent increase in our production in 2011-12,” Karnataka Planters’ Association (KPA) chairman Marvin Rodrigues said on the margins of a conference. Though India’s production grew marginally to 5.33 million bags in 2011 from 5.03 million bags in 2010, registering 5.9 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth, Peru had a whopping 33 per cent YoY growth to 5.4 million bags from 4.06 million bags in the same period. In spite of 13 per cent YoY decline to 6.5 million bags from 7.5 million bags in the like period, Ethiopia remained fifth while Vietnam stood (second after Brazil) with 21 million bags and Indonesia fourth (after Colombia) with 8.3 million bags. “Our production cost is also higher than these countries due to increasing wages, mandatory social costs like providing housing, healthcare and provident fund to the work force, rising overheads like fuel hike and state taxes/levies,” Rodrigues noted.   From gulftoday