BANDAR LAMPUNG/JAKARTA, March 2 (Reuters) - Indonesia's robusta coffee exports from the main growing areas of Sumatra island nearly tripled last month versus a year ago, spurred by high international prices, industry data showed on Wednesday.
Exporters shipped 17,504.98 tonnes in February, compared to 6,606.78 tonnes in the same month a year ago, trade data showed.
"Rallying coffee prices have prompted suppliers to sell their coffee stocks," said Azis Chan Satib, a spokesman at the Indonesia Coffee Association.
Traders shipped coffee from old contracts using beans from stockpile to benefit from higher prices.
Unseasonal heavy rains cut output of many commodities in Indonesia last year or in early 2011, leaving coffee growers unable to take advantage of a rally in coffee prices that took London second-month robusta coffee futures up 57 percent in 2010 to end the year at $2,097 per tonne.
The prolonged rains resulted in Indonesian exports falling 28 percent last year. The country's exports for 2010 fell to 247,750.34 tonnes, from 342,844.25 tonnes in 2009.
"It is quite a surprise for me, because we tend to think the coffee harvesting progress is not going well due to the rainy season," said Ker Chung Yang, investment analyst at Phillip Futures. "This is likely to weigh on the coffee prices, especially robusta coffee, because this is a huge number."
The main harvest in southern Sumatra would not start until May-June, said Satib.
Harvests in Sumatra usually start in March or April, but farmers have been picking cherries since January as the flowering season began earlier in some areas after the previous crop ended in August last year.
"They (Indonesia) are likely to export more at the moment because they want to enjoy the higher coffee prices," added Yang.
Robusta -- used in instant coffee -- mostly grows in Lampung, Bengkulu, and South Sumatra provinces at the southern end of Sumatra island and accounts for about 85 percent of Indonesia's coffee production. The rest is higher value, aromatic arabica coffee.
Robusta, a bitter-tasting variety used in instant coffee, has tracked rallies in premium arabica beans to levels not seen in more than 30 years to stand at around 278 U.S. cents a pound.
Indonesia is the world's second-largest robusta producer after Vietnam, where stocks are falling given a faster shipping pace so far in the October 2010/September 2011 harvesting season while the volume of exportable beans may have fallen due to a higher ratio of small-sized beans, traders said.
Robusta prices in Vietnam's domestic market jumped to a record high in local currency terms on Tuesday to 46 million dong ($2,205) a tonne, but exporters still found it difficult to secure beans from growers who are holding back sales, traders said.
Following are details of exports:
MONTH 2011 2010 Pct change
(tonnes) (tonnes) (y/y) January 17,589.10 6,740.40 +161 February 17,504.98 6,606.78 +165
Total 35,094.08 247,750.34 n/a (Reporting by Mas Alina Arifin; Writing by Michael Taylor; Editing by Ramthan Hussain)
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