Darjeeling tea will soon have a company of a sister beverage

Coffee Board looks to expand their production at Himachal Pradesh & Darjeeling, to reduce dependence on Karnataka

The world famous Darjeeling tea will soon have a company of sister beverage as the Coffee Board has started pilot plating in Himachal Pradesh and Darjeeling. This is being done with an intention to reduce the dependency on one state that is Karnataka where it is largely grown. the Coffee Board has already identified around 15,000 hectares within Tamil Nadu also.

In Darjeeling, the Board has tied-up with Gurakah Tribal Autonomous Council, which has about 500 hectares and they want to plant coffee and replace Cinchona cultivation.

Preliminary planting, especially in Darjeeling have been quite encouraging. In Himachal Pradesh, it has started a pilot scale planting of Coffee in 40-50 locations, each of one acre or around. So, far vegetative growth is good and the Board hopes that it will get a good yield also.

This comes on the back drop of Board's plan to increase the Coffee production in the country upto 4 lakh during the next five year plan.

The 12th plan target was around 3.5 lakh tonnes, last year it was 3.48 lakh tonnes. This year it is slightly slow because of off-year and weather related issues. Next year we may reach 3.5 lakh tonnes, said Y Raghuramulu, director of research, Coffee Board, which comes under Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Speaking to Business Standard on the sidelines of recently held UPASI convention at The Nilgiris, he said, India's production is increasing slowly. India's share in exports is around 4-4.5%. The board wants to sustain the domestic growth, which is at around 5%.

Next year production may reach 3.5 lakh tonnes and during the next plan it may go upto 4 lakh.

The Board is looking at new areas for cultivation. Already it has identified around 15,000 hectares within Tamil Nadu and started a pilot in Himachal and Darjelling. Preliminarily plants in Darjelling have been encouraging. Even in lower Himachal survey has been done. Pilot done in 50 locations in half acre or one acre. Growth has been good so far, said Raghuramulu.

Exports

Today, around 5% of export from India is specially coffee, while the industry is also betting big on instant coffee manufacturing, which is about 30% of the total exports. Around 15 years before this was only 10%.

"In the coming years, we may want to achieve 60% of our total exports as specialty coffees to fetch better value," said Raghuramulu.