The State-run Coffee Board has mooted a proposal to double India’s coffee production over the next 10 years through increasing productivity in the traditional growing states, while bringing in new areas of around 2 lakh ha under cultivation in the non-traditional regions. Coffee has traditionally been grown in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, while the plantation crop has been making inroads in the non-traditional regions of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and the North East in recent years.

Coffee Board Secretary and CEO, K G Jagadeesha said the Board proposes to take a two-pronged approach to double the production by 2033. “We are looking at a National Replantation Policy for the traditional States, where coffee plants in about 60 per cent of the areas have crossed the economic age. The yields start declining in arabica plants after 40 years and in robusta after 50 years. If we don’t take up replanting in those states where it has crossed the economic age then our yields are bound to go down. We can increase almost 50 per cent of our production by replanting the old and senile plants,” Jagadeesha said.

To absorb interest

As part of the proposal, the interest costs on the loans availed by growers to take up replanting in the traditional areas will be absorbed by the government for a period of five years, Jagadeesha said. The Board has sent the proposal to the Commerce Ministry and is awaiting for the government’s approval.

Currently, coffee is grown in about 4.72 lakh hectares and the production during 2022-23 stood at 3.60 lakh tonnes. India’s coffee output has more than doubled over the past three decades from around 1.69 lakh tonnes in the early nineties and the Board is targetting doubling the yields over the next decade through improved productivity.

Further, Jagadeesha said the proposed area expansion of about two lakh hectares in the non-traditional regions will be carried out by providing subsidies to the growers in collaboration with the respective States. The Centre proposes to share the subsidy burden equally with the States for new area expansion.

Odisha’s mission

Jagadeesha said Odisha has already announced a mission to bring about 1 lakh ha under coffee by 2030. In Andhra Pradesh about 80,000 hectares would be brought under coffee, while the cultivation can be expanded to about 25,000 hectares in Tamil Nadu and another 50,000-60,000 hecatres in North East. “All these areas if we can bring under coffee, we can improve the output,” he said.

India, which exports about two thirds of the coffee produced in the country, is hosting the World Coffee Congress (WCC 2023) in Bengaluru from September 25-28 and the event is expected to showcase the Indian coffees to the global buyers.

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