India’s coffee exports are likely to rise as much as 10% in 2024 as a rally in global prices prompts European buyers to pay premiums in order to increase purchases from the country, industry officials told Reuters.
The South Asian country – famous as a tea producer – is also the world’s eighth-largest coffee grower, mainly churning out the robusta beans used to make instant coffee. It also produces some of the more expensive arabica variety.
“The demand for Indian coffee, particularly robusta beans, is strong due to firm global prices resulting from production issues,” said Ramesh Rajah, president of the Coffee Exporters’ Association of India, predicting a rise in exports this year of up to 10%.
Robusta coffee is trading near its highest in at least 15 years as Vietnam, the world’s biggest producer, is expected to produce less in 2023/24 than the previous season.
India exports three quarters of its production mainly to Italy, Germany and Belgium.