"Thursday's sale witnessed larger offerings of hold-back (leftover) arabicas," the Indian Coffee Traders' Association (ICTA) market report said.

It said 22.32 per cent of the total 755.84 tonnes of coffee offered was sold, up from 16.29 per cent of 636.61 tonnes during the previous week.

Arabica sales increased to 25.11 per cent of the offered 587.37 tonnes from 16.15 per cent of 478.83 tonnes last week.

"Growers are trying to offload their leftover arabicas," an official of the Karnataka Coffee Brokers Ltd (KCBL) said. KCBL is a leading ICTA brokerage firm.

"But there are few buyers for the price levels at which they are offering the arabicas. Buyers are looking for throwaway prices," he said.

The official also said Thursday's auctions saw the first sales of the new coffee crop from the 1998-99 (October-September) season. "New crop washedarabica coffee constituted about five per cent of the total arabicas sold," he said.

The ICTA report however said robusta sales continued to remain low at 12.60 per cent of the offered 168.47 tonnes, down from 16.74 per cent of 157.78 tonnes last week.

It said the sales were dominated by domestic traders and roasters with exporters completely staying away.

Robusta sales were low as exporters were not buying the variety because they thought prices were high, the KCBL official said. "And the growers can hold on to the robustas for another month as the fresh crop is expected only after mid-January."

"Exporters are totally out of the market and are waiting for new and competitively priced coffee. With the international market not looking good, the poor sales will continue for some time," he said.

The ICTA report said Plantation A grade coffee sold for an average price of Rs 94.14 per kg on Thursday, down from Rs 95.46 per kg last week. Plantation PB sold for an average price of Rs 125.47 per kg, downfrom Rs 129.44 per kg last week.

Robusta cherry AB prices were higher at an average of Rs 76.78 per kg against Rs 75.14 per kg last week.