The LONDON based International Coffee Organization (ICO), has released Aug 2010's export figures. The result is that they have totalled world coffee exports to 7.92 million bags in August 2010. Although this is up in contrast to the 7.63 million bags in August 2009, exports in the 11 months of last coffee year 2009/10 (Oct/09 to Aug/10) have decreased by 4.4% to 86.34 million bags compared to 90.35 million bags in the same period in the last coffee year.
In the twelve months ending August 2010, Arabica exports amounted to 60.44 million bags compared to 63.13 million bags last year, a decrease of 4.26%. Of comparison interest only to me is that Robusta (yuk) exports totalled 32.98 million bags compared to 35.31 million bags last year, a decrease of 6.6%, on a smaller number, so perhaps there is a silver lining ;).
So that means that all varieties Arabica represent 66.89% of the world's production, so technically the Arabica production is increasing, this point to the fact that the coffee drinking public is becoming more discerning, since this is up from the 60% in 2008.
Does this mean the mass producers should be concerned? Perhaps they should since they are the last to concentrate on quality coffee product, rather fall back on the convenience factor. Also since the major brands all rely on Robusta to control their price, the drop in export in that crop may mean good news for those driven by quality rather than brand.
It does show that the earlier scare this year may be on track, and may cause green bean hording. The one question I still have is does the specialty coffee industry report accurately into the ICO?
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