Rs 350 cr to boost coffee cultivation in Vizag

The Andhra Pradesh government is promoting coffee cultivation in the agency areas of Visakhapatnam for which it would spend around Rs 350 crore over the next seven to eight years along with other organisations.

Since the coffee produced in these areas is of international quality, the government is encouraging coffee plantation by tribal here jointly with the Coffee Board, Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).

The agency areas, under the scheme, would take up coffee plantation and shade tree plantation in 104,000 acres. Of the total Rs 350 crore investment, the Coffee Board would provide Rs 62 crore. The remaining would come from NREGS while ITDA would monitor the plantation programme.

“Coffee plantation has been completed on about 12,000 acres. Once the total plantation is complete on 104,000 acres, we may get 8,000-10,000 tonnes of coffee seeds every year from here,” Coffee Board sources said.

At present, the Andhra Pradesh Forest Development Corporation (APFDC) cultivates coffee on about 10,000 acres in the reserve forest area. The coffee produced from this area had also received the ‘flavour of India fine cup’ award.

APFDC expects 900 tonnes of coffee production during this year. “Last year, the production was only 690 tonnes due to unfavourable weather, but this year, the production would touch 900-1,000 tonnes,” AN Gurumurthy, group manager, APFDC, told Business Standard.

He said the price this year will remain more or less the same as 2009-10, which was Rs 140 a kg.