Farm workers harvesting coffee beans at a plantation in Wayanad district of Kerala.
| Photo Credit: E.M. MANOJ
The Robusta coffee farmers in south India are jubilant post-harvest with their produce fetching an all-time high price.
The farmgate price of raw robusta coffee berries touched a record ₹172 a kg in Wayanad market on Saturday, as against ₹115 a kg during the corresponding period last year. Meanwhile, spot price of robusta coffee beans stood at ₹315 a kg, up from ₹210 during the same period in 2023. The price was ₹80 and ₹145 a kg for raw berries and beans respectively in March 2022.
Though the harvest is almost complete, there has been a huge shortfall in the supply of coffee to the market this year, thereby contributing to the increase in coffee prices, says sources.
Multiple factors
“We expect a decline of 30% in the production of robusta this year owing to climatic vagaries, especially the scanty blossom shower in robusta growing regions last year,” sources said.
A sharp decline in production of robusta coffee — nearly 2 million bags — in Vietnam, a major Robusta coffee growing country, has also attributed to the increase in price, the sources added. Robusta coffee production in Indonesia too dipped sharply this year, the sources added.
Notably, the price of Arabica variety of coffee has dropped below the price of robusta coffee. The farmgate price of the Arabica variety coffee was ₹305 per kg on Saturday. Though the Arabica variety always fetched a premium price in the market, it is the robusta variety that is witnessing an increase due to its low availability for the first time.
Farmers suspect that the production may decline by 25% to 30% next year too owing to a dearth of backup showers in many robusta coffee growing areas in the country.
Wayanad in Kerala, which is the largest robusta coffee producing district in the country after Coorg in Karnataka, received a rainfall of 29.3 mm in the first week of January. Major parts of the district received no rain since then.
The January showers helped in the blossoming of robusta coffee plants, farmers say. But the absence of backup showers, a major factor in the formation of berries, is a concern.
According to Coffee Board of India, the total production of coffee in the country during the 2022-23 fiscal was 3,52,000 tonnes, including 2,52,000 tons of robusta coffee.
