Curbs on movement of containers on two State highways affect delivery to port
Bengaluru :
Curbs on the movement of heavy container traffic on the key State highway connecting Kodagu with Mangaluru port, and the closure of Shiradi Ghat on National Highway 75 for repairs will hamper coffee export consignments in Karnataka, the major coffee producer in the country.
Exporters said containers were stopped from moving on the Mangaluru-Kodagu State highway from Monday by the district administration for repairs. As a result, coffee consignments have to be transported in normal trucks, a move that will increase shipment costs, Ramesh Rajah, President of Coffee Exporters Association, said.
Round about
The Shiradi Ghat on NH-75, which connects Mangaluru with Hassan and also used by exporters in Chikmagalur, has been closed since the beginning of this month for repair and development work.
Most of the green coffee beans from the key growing regions of Kodagu, Hassan and Chikmagalur are normally shipped to the Mangaluru port in containers as it is safe and the quality can be maintained, Rajah said.
Some 22 tonnes of coffee can be transported in a single container from the hinterland to the port. Two lorries with a capacity of 10-12 tonnes are required to transport the same quantity, entailing additional costs.
Karnataka accounts for about two-thirds of the coffee produced in the country and Mangaluru is the major port for coffee shipments.
Rajah said most of the export orders have been booked on free-on-board basis from Mangaluru port and the latest curbs on container movement during the peak exporting season could hurt the realisation for exporters and growers.
He said the Government should look for a solution for regulating the container traffic on the Kushalnagar-Mangaluru road to ease the movement of coffee shipments.
Further, Rajah said the overseas demand for robustas has been good, but the interest for arabicas has been rather subdued due to volatile prices.
Robust outlook
“The order book for the robusta is better than last year, and shipments have been picking up in the past couple of days,” he said. Robusta is currently being harvested across the key growing regions. According to the Coffee Board, provisional exports in the current calendar year (from January 1 to 15) are down at 6,610 tonnes against 8,597 tonnes in the same period a year ago.
Last year, coffee exports stood at 3.01 lakh tonnes valued at ₹4,984 crore ($818 million).
The Board, in its latest post monsoon estimates, has pegged the 2014-15 crop size at 3.31 lakh tonnes, a 4 per cent decline over its early or post blossom estimate of 3.44 lakh tonnes, primarily due to lower arabica crop that faced a severe pest attack, erratic rainfall and a cyclone.
However, the latest estimates for 2014-15 are 8.7 per cent higher than last year’s final estimate of 3.04 lakh tonnes.
Arabica output for the current season is pegged at 99,600 tonnes, while production of Robusta is expected to 2.31 lakh tonnes for the 2014-15 season, a decline of 5.6 per cent and 3.28 per cent respectively over the post blossom estimate.
source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Hom> Agri-Biz / by Vishwanth Kulkarni / Bengaluru – January 20th, 2015
