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India to ratify UN pact on International Coffee
Trade
The step considering towards boasting the India's coffee trade in international arena, the UPA government has showed positive remarks towards signing and ratifying the International Coffee Agreement (ICA), 2007. The ICA is established as the United Nations pact for formation of the International Coffee Agreement. Earlier its ratification was done in year 1963, with an aim of stabilizing the prices of coffee which saw a massive increase due to the breakdown of the coffee market in 1950 and lasted till the early 1960. It has been signed by 67 nations, including of top international coffee exporters and importers. Since 1963, five ratifications have been done in respect of agreement which occurred in 1968, 1976, 1983, 1994 and 2001. ICA 2007 will replace the 2001 agreement, which is going to expire on 30th September, 2008. Around 50 nations have recognized the role of coffee towards boosting their economy therefore they are invited for signing the agreement. India exports nearly 70-80 per cent of coffee production, which have escalated by 3.6 per cent during the early months of 2008. Uninfluenced with the skyrocketed prices and less production, such increase in the export rate has been witnessed due to the good exporting demand generated in the European nations. Nearly 132,846 tonnes coffee export has been recorded during the months of January to June as compare to 128,899 tonnes export during same period in previous year. As per the state owned coffee board, Indian coffee export price has been registered at Rs 1,05,454 per tonne during January-June of year 2008, which is Rs 84,521 per tonne more than that of the same period of 2007. While the coffee board has dotted the leap in export rate as that of a blossom nature, the trade experts are releasing positive vibes and are confident in respect of increase in export rate for remaining months of year 2008. India exports about 25 per cent of its coffee production to Italy followed by Russia and Germany. The escalation has also been seen in the composite indicator price of the International Coffee Organization (ICO), which has shoot up from 122.22 per lb of January to 138.82 cents per lb of February. But the ICO composite indicator price has followed a rolling path in April when it fell down to 126.55 cent per lb, which remained unchangeable in may and till the two weeks of June. But prices started showing increasing movement in 3rd week of June and touched the mark of 141.39 cents per lb on 30th June. Add to it, in 2007-08 India's production of coffee diminished and stood at 2,62,000 tonnes. In spite of showing negative signs, export of coffee has rejuvenated with a sharp increase in export rate. Indian Coffee Industry Indian coffee industry is the 6th largest coffee producer in throughout the world. The nation produces around 4% of world's total coffee output. Southern parts of country is characterized as the major coffee producer. India is worldwide famous for its Monsooned Malabar coffee bean. In India there are nearly 1,70,000 coffee farms having approximately 90,00,00 acres of coffee trees. Generally coffee is produced in India on farms with small size. Such small farms consist of coffee trees which are 10 acres or less. In some farms, farmers shown their interest in utilizing only half of their land for producing coffee. India is characterized as one of the high producer of Arabica coffee but in recent times the coffee acreage is being used for growing another type of coffee trees i.e, robusta trees, which has recently accounted nearly 64% of total nation's output. Major Coffee Producing States
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