Coffee Output To Touch 3 Lakh Mt

Coffee production in the country would touch the three lakh metric tonne target by the end of the ninth plan. R Naidu, director of research, Central Coffee Research Institute (CCRI), Balahannur in Karnataka, said yesterday.

He said production was expected to be around 2.85 mt this year.

Cultivated in three lakh hectares coffee production now was at an average two to 2.20 lakh mt per annum. In the past three years the annual foreign exchange earning stood at Rs 1400 crores.

The country which stood second in coffee production during 1989 with 1000 mt per annum had been relegated to the sixth position, he regretted.

Naidu said coffee growers have been asked to form co-operative societies with 100 members in each society to avail assistance and to market among themselves.

The board would extend necessary facilities including research facilities,to the societies.

The board had sought Rs 249 crore assistance from the centre for the development of coffee cultivation, he disclosed.