NEW DELHI (Commodity Online) : Coffee Board of India on Tuesday said country’s coffee exports dropped by 19.4 percent from a year ago to 1,48,305 tone during January to October 5 this year.

Earlier, Coffee Board had reduced its export target for 2009 to 180,000-190,000 tone. In 2008, coffee exports from India stood at 219,583 tones.

Trade commodities or equities from across the globe. Join Now

Export earnings were Rs 1,978 crore for the year, down over 17 per cent compared with the previous year. Unit value remained flat at around Rs 1 lakh per tone.

Output in India was hit due to heavy crop loss in the biggest-producing state of Karnataka following untimely and excessive rains and berry-bores menace.

Total output in the country for the crop year has been estimated at 262,300 tones, which is 10 per cent less than initial estimates done by the Coffee Board.

Demand from the Russian Federation and European countries came down considerably due to economic meltdown.