BANGALORE, OCT 25: Coffee crop for the year to September 2000 is well on its way to hitting an all-time high of 280,000 tonnes, traders and officials said last week on Friday. "It will certainly be an all-time high crop of over 280,000 tonnes," SV Ranganath, chairman of the state-run Coffee Board said."Last week we made an informal estimate of 283,000 tonnes following a meeting of our field officers," Ranganath said. "The final estimate will be made in the first week of October." This compares with the previous year's crop of 230,000 tonnes.In its post-blossom estimates made in June, the Board had put India's new crop at 285,000 tonnes. The forecast included 160,000 tonnes of robustas and 125,000 tonnes of arabicas. Unrelenting rains subsequently provoked fears the crop might be affected with droppings and rust disease.Growers said a let-up in rains in August and good sunshine ensured the beans were not hit. "As things stand, we are on our way to a record crop," said Arun Bidappa, managing directorof leading brokerage firm Karnataka Coffee Brokers Ltd. "Harvesting in the main growing area of Karnataka should start in end-December while stray harvesting will start a little earlier in Tamil Nadu," he said.Karnataka accounts for 70 percent of India's crop while Tamil Nadu and neighbouring Kerala states contribute the rest. The country exports about 75 per cent of its output. Exporters, however, put the 1999/2000 crop at a much higher level of over 300,000 tonnes as they estimate an increase in Kerala's output which is mainly robustas. "There will be a 20 per cent increase in Kerala's output to 60,000 tonnes from 45,000," Milan Shah of Madhu Jayanti Exports said. Shah said the total new crop output would include 60 per cent robustas with the rest arabicas, compared with the traditional 55:45 ratio of robustas to arabicas.
