Indian coffee supplies dwindling

With adverse weather affecting the Robusta crops of the world’s two largest producers – Vietnam and Brazil – the time has never been better for producers in other nations to cash in. However, the opportunity presented by this situation is limited to the capacity of those nations to make up the shortfall. This is the dilemma facing Indian Robusta farmers at the moment. While exports until August this year were up 18 per cent on the same period in 2015, the growth has been declining over recent months. Most of last year’s record crop, which yielded 244,000 tonnes of Robusta, has now been sold and growers are holding back the remainder in anticipation of a lower crop next year. That’s because India’s Robusta producers, who account for 70 per cent of the nation’s coffee output, are facing their own weather-related challenges, with drought expected to cut the 2016-17 crop by between 15 and 25 per cent.