Tata Coffee brews speciality coffee entry

Tata Coffee, the integrated coffee company, has forayed into the speciality coffee segment.

"This was the natural choice for us as nearly 30 per cent of our coffee production is in specialty coffee," said M H Ashraf, managing director, Tata Coffee.

"The company's speciality coffees are recognised the world over. For example, Kenneth David's portfolio of '10 Best Indian Coffees' include six from Tata Coffee," he added.

Also, the company has under its portfolio Monsooned coffee, which is mainly exported to European countries, and organic coffee, which is exported primarily to the US. Organic coffee is targetted at a very niche market. Tata Coffee grows 80 hectares of organic coffee to produce 1.2 lakh kg of coffee, he added.

"The company has also made inroads into estate-specific coffee. For the first time in the history of the coffee industry, Jumboor estate coffee is being sold as 'Jumboor Coffee.'," said Ashraf.

Instant coffee contributes 50 per cent of the overall turnover of the company. The two facilities in Hyderabad and Theni in Tamil Nadu have a total capacity of 7,200 tonnes.

Theni facility has an additional advantage as it is located close to the coffee growing regions and Tuticorin port. It is a 100 per cent EoU and exports to Russia and other East European countries are being shipped from there. The division expects a growth of 20 per cent this year.

"Starbucks has placed a repeat order with Tata Coffee. They were satisfied with the first supply from us," said Ashraf.

The company, which had registered a turnover of Rs 180 crore in 2003-04 expects to reach Rs 500 crore in five years.

The company's annual production is around 1 crore kg of coffee from over 7,000 hectares spread over 17 estates in Karnataka. It had exported 4.9 tonnes to various countries including Russia in 2003-04.

Uganda facility on cards

Tata Coffee plans to set up an instant coffee facility in Uganda. The managing director of the company M H Ashraf said a high-level delegation is exploring the possibility and is likely to take a decision shortly.

The delegation visited Uganda in March to study factors like investment climate, labour facility and held discussions with the Ugandan ministry and officials, he added.

For the instant coffee facility, the company is likely to start with a 3,000 tonne capacity project by investing Rs 25 crore.

Currently Ugandan Coffee is sold in China, which had emerged as one of the big coffee consuming countries.

"Young Chinese in particular preferred coffee now and Ugandan Coffee sold its product in China through a joint venture. The Uganda's foothold in China may help the proposed project to push its product," said Ashraf.

He said that some more proposals were under consideration and the company was looking for better opportunities, especially in Vietnam and establish its presence there.