The Coffee Board will be promoting entrepreneurship with a dual purpose of pushing self-businesses as well as coffee consumption.
Speaking to BusinessLine on the sidelines of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) which began here on Tuesday, Y Raghuramulu, Central Coffee Research Institute, said 34 entrepreneurs had successfully launched their businesses in the last one-and-a-half years.
According to B J Ashwin Kumar, Research Chair & Consultant (Promotion), Coffee Board, about 700 were trained in various aspects of coffee business so far.
"The advantage in business of coffee is that it will not need huge capital. One can take it off with even Rs 1 lakh," he said.
Steady growth in consumption
Consumption of coffee has been steadily growing at about 5 to 6 per cent per annum, Raghuramulu said.
He added: "While South India has been a predominant market, of late the number of coffee lovers in the North has been growing."
About 3.25 lakh tonnes of coffee is produced by India. " Efforts are to push coffee exports from India with a focus on special varieties," he added.
Europe is a major destination for Indian shade-grown coffee followed by the US.
Domestic consumption is about 1 lakh tonnes which includes few imported varieties from countries such as Indonesia and Vietnam.