India may turn net importer of coffee as consumption rises

India, the world's sixth-largest coffee exporter, may turn a net importer the next decade, Tata Coffee Managing Director Hameed Huq said.

Domestic consumption is growing five-six per cent a year, while production is stagnating, watchers said. “Domestic per capita consumption is at 90g a year; even if the consumption goes up to 270g per person a year, the country will turn a net importer the next decade.”

Consumption in India is estimated at 125,000 tonnes a year against a production of 315,000 tonnes. For 2013-14, production is estimated at 311,000 tonnes, a decline of two per cent from a year ago.

In 2012-13, India exported 308,916 tonnes, a decline of 10.3 per cent compared to 2011-12.

“The sector, with the Coffee Board of India, is actively working on many initiatives to spread awareness about coffee. One is the India International Coffee Festival (IICF). It plays an important role in promoting consumption in India. India is largely a tea-drinking country. Many tea-drinking countries such as Russia and China are progressively moving to coffee.”

“We’ve got to make coffee easily available to the masses. We have to impart a certain amount of knowledge on the preparation of coffee. Critical to increasing consumption is setting up small roasteries, which can be driven by young entrepreneurs and growth in instant coffee. IICF can help in this. Today, there aren’t many roasteries in India,” he added. “If we can increase per capita consumption to 270g, the entire domestic production can be consumed in India.”

Citing the example of Brazil, Huq said consumption there had risen from five million bags to 21 million in 15 years. “If India can emulate Brazil, it can consume all its production. We have all the learning from Brazil before us.”

In Brazil, the economic growth combined with better income distribution and relatively low unemployment rates have encouraged coffee consumption. In India also, the growth in consumption in the last few years has been very impressive and encouraging.