New Delhi :

The government is considering withdrawal of the Coffee Act, 1942, as it “no longer serves the purpose”, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

The Minister was replying to a supplementary during Question Hour on the role of the Coffee Board, especially with regard to small growers, and why it was headless for the past two years.

“Over the years, the role of the Coffee Board has changed and many provisions of the existing Act have become redundant, especially after abolition of the Coffee Pooling System in 1996,” she said, adding that it had been proposed to repeal the Act which was enacted more than 70 years back and enact a new Coffee Bill, 2016.

The suggestions received on the Bill were “regarding the control of the coffee industry, definition of coffee and coffee estate, cognisance of offence under the Act, etc, which are being examined,” she added.

Output decline

In reply to a question from Prathap Simha from Coorg, the Minister said domestic coffee production was likely to fall by 8 per cent in the current fiscal, due mainly to lack of timely rains.

“It has been estimated that there is a likelihood of a decline in coffee production in 2016-17 by 8 per cent compared with 2015-16 due to lack of timely rains and high temperature during the crucial flowering stage,” Sitharaman said.

On another supplementary on whether the government would mandate international coffee chains in India to buy Indian coffee, Sitharaman said the country was home to 2 per cent of the world’s coffee growing area, but produced 4 per cent of global production and had a share of 5 per cent of world coffee exports, worth over Rs. 5,000 crore a year. So, even though international coffee chains have set up shop in India, they do buy coffee locally, she said.

The main buyers of Indian coffee are Italy, Russian Federation, Germany, Belgium and Turkey, which account for over 50 per cent of coffee exports from India, she added.

Duncan tea gardens

On another supplementary by Trinamool’s Saugata Roy who wanted to know how many closed tea gardens’ belonging to the Duncan group in West Bengal had been taken over by the Centre “as promised four months ago”, Sitharaman said the government had moved to take over some tea gardens, but there was litigation by the Duncan group. The Minister said the process to identify new agencies to take over the management of these tea gardens was on, in consultation with the state government.

source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> Economy> AgriBusiness / The Hindu Bureau / New Delhi – July 25th, 2016