Hyderabad: The COVID-19 pandemic forced the entire country to stay locked at homes, made many people have extra cups of chai and coffee. During FY21, Telangana witnessed a 54% rise in coffee exports bringing the export number to US$ 20Mn in FY21.
Telangana’s coffee exports, though on a smaller base, grew despite a dip in the national coffee exports, revealed global trade finance company Drip Capital Inc in its latest report.
Drip Capital’s research attributes this change to a rise in demand for convenience during the pandemic, leading to increased export value realization for instant coffee. As of FY20, the export volume of instant coffee has grown at a 10-year CAGR of 4%, and the export value has increased at an 8% CAGR.
Moreover, the crisis significantly affected green coffee beans shipments in March 2020, which is the crucial period for Robusta coffee harvesting and exports, he explained. However, even before the pandemic, the Indian coffee industry had been witnessing stagnation for a while due to a growing need for value addition across multiple stages of coffee processing.
“One of the reasons for significant growth in Telangana’s coffee exports can be attributed to the rise in instant coffee exports to West Africa from the state, which jumped from $2 million in FY20 to $6 million in FY21. In general, Telangana exported its instant coffee to a higher number of Western African countries in FY21 than it did in FY20,” a Drip Capital spokesperson said.
The report also pointed out that as the intensity of the pandemic grew, the demand for coffee from large restaurants and cafe chains kept declining while that from retailers for home consumption rose.