Hyderabad: People across the world are reaching for a cup of their favourite coffee more regularly after being locked inside their homes for more than a year. As a result, Telangana's coffee exporters have been busier than ever in recent times. Although Telangana does not cultivate coffee, the state exports it.

Coffee exports increased by 54 per cent to $20 million in FY21, compared to $13 million the previous year. What's noteworthy is that, despite a drop in national coffee exports, Telangana's coffee exports rose, albeit on a lesser scale, according to Drip Capital Inc, a worldwide trade finance business.

India exported coffee worth almost $720 million in FY21, compared to $739 million in FY20, according to statistics from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT). The worldwide coffee market was estimated to be worth $466 billion in 2020.

"One of the reasons for the 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.

Meanwhile, a drop in national coffee exports was partially caused by Covid-19, in which India's overall coffee exports fell to a nine-year low in dollar value terms in FY20 and fell by 44% in April 2020.

The issue had a substantial impact on green coffee bean shipments in March 2020, which is a critical season for Robusta coffee harvesting and exports. Even before the pandemic, however, the Indian coffee sector had been stagnating for some time due to a growing need for value addition at several levels of the coffee manufacturing process.

While environmental changes are one of the causes for India's poor and delayed coffee production, many other aspects, particularly on the processing front, may be addressed to enhance India's coffee exports, according to the research.

According to the research, as the pandemic became more severe, the demand for coffee from major restaurants and cafe chains decreased, but the demand from merchants for home use increased.