The Monsoon rain damages much of India’s coffee production for the season
The Monsoon rain destroyed ready to harvest coffee cherries in India as experts are currently assessing to estimate the damage. According to Karnataka Planters’ Association (KPA) that represents more than 80% of coffee growers in the country, a preliminary prediction of about 30% Arabica production and 20% Robusta drop is expected due to the natural disaster.
“Excessive rainfall played spoilsport for coffee plantations across the country. Because of early blossom showers in February, the crop was ready for harvest in October itself, instead of November. A large volume of berries are spitting open or falling down now before they are harvested,’’ said KPA chairman S. Appadurai.
Coffee is grown in three regions of India with Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu forming the traditional coffee growing region, followed by the new areas developed in the non-traditional areas of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha in the eastern coast of the country and with a third region comprising the states of Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh of Northeastern India. Indian coffee, grown mostly in southern states under monsoon rainfall conditions, is also termed as “Indian monsooned coffee". Its flavour is defined as: "The best Indian coffee reaches the flavour characteristics of Pacific coffees.
The country’s 70% coffee is bound for Germany, Russia, Spain, Belgium, Slovenia, United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Greece, Netherlands and France. Italy accounts for 29% of the exports. Most of the export is shipped through the Suez Canal.