Unit Value Of Coffee Exports Declining

Bangalore: The International Coffee Organisation (ICO) has said the unit value of exports has been falling constantly for a number of coffee producing countries including India. The ICO has also revised world coffee production from 114 million bags to 116 million bags and has expressed concern over weakness of the US dollar. Coffee exports in November 2007 were seven million bags, bringing total exports for the first 11 months of 2007 to 87.4 million bags, an increase of 4.4 per cent compared to the same period in 2006. As for the prices, they rose sharply in December 2007, particularly in the Arabica variety, with the monthly average of the ICO composite price standing at 118.16 cents a pound compared with 114.43 cents a pound in November 2007. While Robusta prices were slightly down in December, they remained firm and broke the $1 barrier on January 11, 2008, for the first time in nearly 12 years. The price of 100.35 cents for Robustas on January 11 is over 363 per cent higher than the price of 21.65 cents on October 11, 2001. The country's production in 2007-08 was 33.7 million bags, comprising 23.5 million bags of Arabicas and 10.2 million bags of Robustas.