Coffee growers welcome setting up of panel to look into woes

Coffee growers and stakeholders have welcomed the announcement of constitution of a Special Task Force to carry out a comprehensive study of the problems faced by all sections of the industry and the Coffee Board.

The Task Force, comprising senior officers of the Commerce Ministry, to be set up soon after the Budget session of Parliament will extensively engage with various stakeholders including grower associations, examine the functioning of the Coffee Board and make suitable recommendations to the Union Minister for Commerce Piyush Goyal, who had announced the initiative.

In a release, UPASI Coffee Committee Chairman Jeffry Rebello said Goyal had convened a meeting recently of various coffee growers associations to discuss the issues faced by the industry.

A delegation of coffee growers and exporters associations had extensive discussions with Goyal on finding a remedy to the problems faced by the coffee industry and appraised of the situation by a group of MPs from Karnataka led by Prahlad Joshi, he said.

All stakeholders have welcomed the initiative, Rebello said in the release issued by United Planters Association of Southern India.