Jakarta, April 17 - Indonesia's coffee bean exports may drop 30 percent in 2009 from last year's multi-year highs, as falling demand and softer global prices take a toll, the Indonesian Coffee Association said on Friday.
Indonesia, the world's second-largest robusta producer, shipped out 448,311 tonnes of beans in 2008 against 321,703 tonnes a year before, the trade body said.
"Exports were so high last year mainly because of good prices but prices have fallen a lot. We are looking at an export fall of 20 to 30 percent," Chairman Hassan Widjaja told Reuters in an interview.
Bean prices in the main growing province of Lampung on Sumatra have lost more than 40 percent after hitting a record of 25,750 rupiah ($2.40) per kg in March to track declines in London futures. The low prices have also made farmers reluctant to sell their beans.
More job cuts in the United States, the world's largest coffee consumer, were sending bearish signals to the coffee market, said Suherman Harsono, chairman of the Lampung chapter of the coffee association.
"Price is driven by the supply-demand situation. If the crisis deepens, the industry will collapse," Harsono said. "Of course people who lost jobs will buy food first, than coffee."
Farmers would suffer if local prices dropped below the current level of 14,000 rupiah/kg, he added.
Dealers said many roasters were buying hand-to-mouth, and exporters in Lampung complained of a lack of buying interest just as the harvests progressed in Sumatra.
Robusta is either blended with arabica beans for a lower-cost brewed coffee or processed into instant coffee.
London's July robusta contract hit a one-month low at $1,477 a tonne on Friday, extending Thursday's declines triggered by a firm dollar and weak oil prices.