Starting 1 October, the output will be 25 % lower than the estimated 316,000 metric tons, the lowest since 1997-98.
Coffee production in India will slump to the lowest in 21 years next season as heavy showers, flooding and landslides damaged trees in the main growing areas in the south of Asia’s third-biggest producer.
Output in the year starting 1 Oct may be about 25 per cent lower than the 316,000 metric tons estimated by the state-run Coffee Board for 2017-18, said A.L.R.M. Nagappan, chairman of the coffee committee at the United Planters’ Association of Southern India. That would be the lowest since 1997-98, government data shows.
The plunge in output may be positive for global coffee prices because India exports more than 70 per cent of its production. Arabica coffee may get support after sliding this week to the lowest in 12 years. Robusta coffee has dropped 11 per cent this year.
But for growers in Kerala, the biggest coffee producer after neighboring Karnataka, the damage is only starting.
“We are in a bad state and we don’t know what the future is going to be,” Nagappan said Thursday in a phone interview. “Not only the crop but the plants are also damaged and that will take another three to four years to recoup. Many areas have been affected by land slides.”
Deadly Flooding
Floods in Kerala this month have killed at least 394 people and more than $3 billion in damage, according to the state’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The area has had 40 per cent more monsoon rain than normal since June 1, according to the India Meteorological Department. Showers between 1 Aug and 19 Aug were 164 per cent higher than average.
“Vigorous monsoon conditions caused flood situations in some other states as well, including Karnataka, interior Maharashtra, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh,” the India Meteorological Department said in a statement on Thursday. – Bloomberg