To help sustain coffee cafe culture in the country, the Coffee Board is setting up ‘Coffee Entrepreneurship Centre’ in Bangalore.
“As coffee cafes and parlours are mushrooming in the country rapidly especially in non-traditional (non-coffee growing States) areas there is acute shortage of manpower,” Jawaid Akhtar, Chairman, Coffee Board, told Business Line.
Objectives
“Through the ‘Coffee Entrepreneurship Centre', we plan to create a manpower base by scientifically training the people by providing knowledge on speciality coffees as well,” he added.
The main objective of the Board taking up this issue is to build manpower in all levels of coffee business – coffee retailing, setting of roast and ground (R&G) outlets and also to assist entrepreneurs in setting up and operating cafes with a formal training.
Educational support
Coffee Board has roped in Indian Institute of Plantation Management (IIPM) to provide educational support.
The entrepreneurship centre is being housed in IIPM campus in Bangalore.
According to Akhtar, “Entrepreneurs are to get lab-scale experience in roasting, grinding coffees and making coffee – espresso and traditional brewing.”
For running the courses, the Board is utilising the faculty available at IIPM. Currently there are around 2,200 cafes operated by big companies such as Café Coffee Day, Costa, Barista and few regional players.
Courses offered
“The centre is expected to be functional from this academic calendar and will include one-month courses on ‘How to make different coffees' and ‘How to start coffee businesses,” said Dr V.G. Dhanakumar, Director, IIPM.
Coffee Board has given a grant of Rs 30 lakh for setting up the centre.
Since there is lot of demand for short-term courses, the intake at the centre is being restricted to around 20 students a batch.