India as an origin
Indian Harvest and Shipping Calendar for EU Buyers
India picks on the opposite half of the year to Brazil. Knowing the calendar is what lets you position an Indian lot rather than react to whatever is offered.
An origin's calendar decides when you can contract, when you can taste, and when the coffee lands. For India it is worth learning because it sits counter-seasonally to the Brazilian cycle most European books are built around.
The year
| Period | What is happening |
|---|---|
| March – April | Blossom showers. Flowering sets the crop; the Coffee Board's post-blossom estimate follows |
| June – September | South-west monsoon. Fruit fills. Also the monsooning season on the coast |
| November – January | Arabica picking, in several selective rounds |
| December – April | Curing, hulling, grading, sorting |
| January – March | Robusta picking |
| February – June | Shipment |
| April – August | European arrival, allowing 4–6 weeks port to port |
Reading it as a buyer
March–April: the forecast. The post-blossom estimate is published after flowering. It is a forecast made eight months before the harvest completes, and heavy monsoon rain that helped the flowering can raise disease pressure later. Treat it as a direction, not a number.
June–September: nothing to taste. The crop is on the tree. This is when to have conversations, not contracts — and when to ask for EUDR documentation, because origins have time to assemble it now and will not in February.
November–January: arabica samples appear. New crop type samples become available towards the end of this window. This is the natural moment to start.
December–April: the specification is set. Curing decides the final grade, screen and moisture. A lot's specification is not really fixed until it has been through the curing works — which is why offer samples earlier than this are indicative.
February–June: shipment. Contract now for arrival in the European spring and summer.
Positioning it against Brazil
Brazil picks roughly May to September and ships from mid-year. India picks November to March and ships February to June.
For a roaster holding both, the useful consequence is that fresh crop from one origin arrives while the other is running down. A Brazil-heavy book has its thinnest, most tired stock in the northern spring, which is exactly when new-crop Indian coffee lands.
Freshness, and when it matters
New crop is not automatically better. Indian coffee, particularly the heavier-bodied washed arabica and anything monsooned, is often more settled after a few months than straight off the drying yard.
What matters more than crop freshness is moisture at shipment and packing. A well-dried lot in GrainPro holds far better than a fresher lot in bare jute. See moisture content and water activity.
Monsooning sits outside this
The monsooning season runs June to September, on already-cured coffee from the preceding harvest. So monsooned lots become available on a different rhythm from the rest of the crop — later, and dependent on how the monsoon actually behaved.
If you want monsooned coffee for an autumn blend launch, ask in spring. Details in what monsooned Malabar is.
Planning backwards
To have coffee in your warehouse by a given month, work back:
- 1–2 weeks — clearance and inland delivery
- 4–6 weeks — port to port
- 1–2 weeks — booking and stuffing
- 1–2 weeks — pre-shipment sample approval
That is roughly two to three months from PSS approval to warehouse, before any harvest-timing constraint.
Hoysala ships from India to the port of your choice. The harvest year for each lot is stated on the offer list, alongside grade, screen, moisture and packing.