KOCHI: Indian instant coffee exporters are depending more on imported raw coffee for their shipments thanks to global fall in coffee prices and devaluation of rupee.
While the total coffee exports from India for nine and a half months to September 15 showed marginal increase at 236,779 tonnes year-on-year, the instant coffee re-exports jumped 22% to 46,127 tonnes for the period.
The global coffee prices plunged following more than expected crop output in Brazil, the largest producer. Weakening of Brazilian currency helped the country to export more this year. In comparison, the Indian green coffee prices of both varieties arabica and robusta are higher.
The Hyderabad-based CCL Products (Indi) Ltd., the leading player in instant coffee shipments, exporting to 80 countries, feels that instant coffee is winning more fans because it is easy on the purse and convenient to prepare than the regular filter coffee.
“We are expecting a 15 % increase in our turnover from Rs 672 crore achieved last year. Through R&D efforts, CCL offers 200 types of coffee blends across the world and many people now cannot make out the difference between our instant and filter coffee as the taste of premium instant coffees has improved substantially,” said Challa Srishant, MD of CCL Products. About 90% of the turnover of the company is from exports.
CCL is mainly sourcing imported coffee from African countries, Brazil Columbia, Vietnam, Mexico, Columbia and Peru. Mostly robusta goes into the making of instant coffee and Vietnam is the largest producer of robusta coffee. Devaluation of Vietnam currency has also led to more exports from that country.
“Weakening of Indian currency has helped in boosting the exports. The European countries have started buying more instant coffee,” said S Sneha, export manager of Sri Narasu’s Coffee Company in Salem which exports instant coffee in powder and granular form.
