Some growers said mild rains a fortnight ago in the Kodagu coffee-growingregion in southern Karnataka state had affected the beans but the damage wasminimal.

Harvesting of India's arabica coffee starts in the middle of December whilerobustas are picked from the end of January.

``We started picking last week and it is in full swing. It should go on tillthe end of February or early March,'' a leading arabica grower inKarnataka's Chikmagalur region, CN Natarajan, told Reuters.

``Planters in our region have shipped coffee for processing and selling. Wehave sent 100 (50 kg) bags for processing,'' he said.

A leading grower and head of brokerage firm Karnataka Coffee Growers Ltd(KCBL), Arun Bidappa said barring a minor slow-down because of mild rain inthe Kodagu region, picking was progressing smoothly.

``Rains in Kodagu caused some unforeseen problems like the ripe coffee beanssplitting open and falling off but the affected quantity is not much,''Bidappa said.

India grows about four per cent of the world's coffee and the state-runCoffee Board has forecast all-time high crop of 2,82,000 tonnes this year -1,19,000 tonnes of arabicas and 1,63,000 tonnes of robustas.

Growers said they expected the crop to be even higher at around 3,00,000tonnes while exporters have estimated it will be about 3,10,000 tonnes.Karnataka accounts for about 70 per cent of the total output and the Kodaguregion accounts for more than three-quarters of the state's production.

Coffee Board deputy director MM Bheemaiah said the rains in the Kodaguregion had cleared up and picking was progressing without problems. Growerssaid picking of robustas would begin on schedule around the end of Januaryas the beans were yet to ripen.

``We may see some stray early arrivals of robust as from farms whereirrigation has been taken up,'' Bheemaiah said.