Revamp Coffee Board, urge growers in south

Karnataka Planters' Association (KPA) has demanded early reconstitution of the Coffee Board to take up key issues affecting the ailing coffee industry.

Currently, out of the 32 members, only 14 slots are filled, which mainly include three representatives of large coffee growers and two of small growers "� only from Karnataka.

Five positions representing small growers from other coffee-growing states, such as Tamil Nadu and Kerala, are yet to be filled up.

The delayed reconstitution of the Coffee Board has affected issues, such as measures to increase domestic consumption of coffee, implementation of special packages for growers and improving the conditions of plantation labourers.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday to announce KPA's 48th annual meeting, S P Muthuraman, chairman, KPA, said, "In view of non-constitution of the Coffee Board, we find that meetings are not taking place on time, owing to which important decisions, such as reform of the Plantation Labour Act and implementation of Special Coffee Term Loan (SCTL) package, are still pending."

The matter of filling vacancies has been pending with the commerce ministry from July 7, when it started to reconstitute the board and, according to a few KPA members, there is intense political lobbying by about a hundred aspirants trying to find a place on the board.

Muthuraman said domestic coffee production is expected to witness an increase of 6.5 per cent to touch 300.30 thousand tonne during 2006-07 compared with 281.90 thousand tonne during 2005-06.

The 2005-06 crop mix saw the share of arabica decline from 37.5 per cent to 35 per cent, while robusta's share increased from 62.5 per cent to 65 per cent. The decline in arabica's share is mainly owing to the rampant white stem borer disease in arabica plantations, he added.

The trends in the world coffee prices were fully reflected in the price realisation in domestic auctions during 2005.

The average prices in 2005 for plantation A, Arabica Cherry AB and Robusta Cherry AB were Rs 103.79, Rs 85.53 and Rs 53.36 a kg respectively, showing an increase of 55 per cent, 57.6 per cent and 51 per cent respectively over the previous year's prices.