Global coffee exports falls 2% to 41.5 million bags in Oct-Feb

Despite a rise in shipments in February, global coffee exports fell by about 2% to 41.5 million bags in the first five months of the current coffee year, according to International Coffee Organization (ICO). The worldwide coffee shipments stood at 42.3 million bags (of 60 kg each), in the same period of the 2010-11 coffee year. The coffee year runs from October to September. However, global shipments of coffee increased by 7% to 9.32 million bags in February 2012 from 8.67 million bags in the year-ago period.

World coffee consignments have fell from the beginning of the current season on the back of low opening stocks on account of record shipments in the 2010-11 coffee year and fall in production in the current crop year.

Global shipments of coffee climbed by 11% to an all-time high of 104.5 million bags in the 2010-11 coffee year from 94.3 million bags in the 2009-10 coffee year. ICO has also pegged the production in crop year 2011-12 at 128.5 million bags against 134.3 million bags in the 2010-11 crop year, representing a decline of 4.3%. The organisation has attributed the decline to the biennial cycle for arabica in Brazil and a fall in output in all other coffee-producing regions, with the exception of Africa.

The low opening stock and a decline in output has been affecting the shipments of coffee right from the first month of the current coffee year. The shipments of the brew declined 9% to 7.11 million bags in October 2011 against 7.79 million bags in the year-ago period. Despite a marginal rise in coffee exports in November 2011 to 7.78 million bags from 7.75 million bags in the same period of the previous year, shipments again fell, albeit marginally, to 9.14 million bags in December 2011 from 9.20 million bags in the year-ago period.

Following the downward trend, global shipments of coffee dipped by 10% to 7.99 million bags in January 2012, compared with 8.87 million in January 2011.