Indian coffee roasters and growers should take advantage of capacities being created to manufacture value added coffee in the country. Two private players are said to be setting up freeze dried instant coffee plants in the country.
There are three ways of making instant coffee and include spray-dried, granulated and freeze dried.
Speaking at the ‘India Coffee Awards 2008’ presentation ceremony, Coffee Board chairman G V Krishna Rau, said, “In addition to Tata Coffee, two private players are setting up freeze dried instant coffee plants in the country. When these are commissioned, this is expected to significantly boost processing capacity of instant coffee.”
“The two plants with annual processing capacity of two tonnes each are to come up at Kushalnagar in Karnataka and Yelluru in Andhra Pradesh. Growers should take advantage of this by improving their quality of robusta coffee, he added.
Presently, about 25 per cent of the Rs 2,046.28 crore coffee-export earnings come from value-added coffee.
Rau said 2007-08 witnessed the highest export realisation from coffee both in dollar terms ($502.84 million) and Indian rupee (Rs 2,046.28 crore).
Union commerce secretary Gopal Krishna Pillai, who presented the export awards said, “Exporters in India are currently facing the problems like drop in orders from the developed countries leading to delayed payments due to financial crisis, and also in addition to the problem of inventories piling up.”
“To tide over this crisis, a package to exporters is being planned apart from sector-specific schemes,” he added without elaborating on the schemes planned.
The winners of ‘India Coffee Awards 2008’. Best exporter of green coffee — general commodities, Bangalore. Best exporter of instant coffee — CCL Products, Hyderabad. Best exporter of speciality coffee — Aspinwall and company, Mangalore. Best exporter of roasted coffee — Coca-Cola India, Pune.
In the speciality coffee categories and fine cup awards category: Arabica — Kelagur Coffee and Tea Estate. Robusta — Nishant R Gurjer Sethuraman Estate and Speciality coffee - Yelnoorkhan Estate.
