While the price of Arabica variety has increased in the international market, many planters of Kodagu are reluctant to maintain this variety of the crop.
Arabica coffee plant (Photo| EPS)
Madikeri :
The changing rainfall and weather pattern in Kodagu is affecting the coffee plantations – especially the Arabica variety of coffee.
While the price of Arabica variety has increased in the international market, many planters of Kodagu are reluctant to maintain this variety of the crop due to the challenges faced following the changing weather patterns.
“Coffee growers in the district have faced immense losses since the past three years. And the Arabica variety of coffee has become unmanageable and a small coffee grower cannot sustain this crop anymore,” shared K Subbaiah, a coffee grower in Chettalli.
He had grown Arabica varieties of plants across eight acres of land and he explained, “I had taken up inter-cropping of Arabica and Robusta varieties across 11 acre. However, I have removed all the Arabica crops in the nearly eight acre estate as I am unable to sustain these crops.”
He shared that the untimely rains has resulted in the Arabica crops yielding beans way before the picking period. “The coffee beans have ripened during this August. How can one pick these beans in the rain and where can one dry these beans?” he questioned.
The Arabica variety normally bore ripened beans in the month of September and they were to be picked during November. However, the changing rain pattern has immensely affected the crop and like Subbaiah, many small coffee growers are removing the Arabica crop variety following immense losses, despite the hike in the price in the international market.
Former vice president of Coffee Board, Dr Kaverappa shared that the Arabica variety is increasingly prone to black rot disease, resulting in its downfall. “Arabica variety is increasingly found in the North Kodagu belt. However, the untimely rains and floods have affected the crops. While there is an immense shortage of Arabic beans and demand for the same has increased in the international market, the production of Arabica variety is less in the district due to the challenges faced by the growers in marinating these varieties,” he explained.
He hoped for the government’s support to the coffee sector and said that insurance to coffee crops and reintroduction of subsidies to the machineries must be enabled to promote and support the sector.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States>Karnataka / by Pragna GR, Express News Service / August 29th, 2021
This week, Rage Coffee announced that it has raised $5 million in series A funding. A look at the company’s plans, including new launches, key markets and corporate tie-ups.
Bharat Sethi is the Delhi-based founder of Rage Coffee. He says that nearly 75% of the company’s sales are from parts of the country other than South India.
Rage Coffee has seen growth zoom during the pandemic, as people confined to their homes ordered and drank more coffee . Earlier this week, the New Delhi-based FMCG coffee startup announced that it had raised $5 million as part of its A series funding round led by Sixth Sense Ventures. In April 2021, it had raised an undisclosed amount from investors led by Refex Capital.
The company, founded in 2018, targets millennials. Around 75% of its sales come through online channels, and the rest through the offline route. It sells instant coffee, ground coffee and cold brew bags of coffee in flavours like Irish hazelnut, crème caramel and mint mocha.
In an interview, Rage Coffee founder and CEO Bharat Sethi spoke about the company’s growth during the pandemic period, development of new products including filter coffee, potential tie-ups and strategy to expand abroad. Excerpts:
How has the pandemic affected sales? Is Rage Coffee’s growth continuing after the second wave?
When the pandemic began, we were well positioned with quality coffee products using arabica beans. With more people ordering online, we doubled our marketing efforts paving the way to leapfrog the growth. From 2020-21 we grew ten times. From April to August this year, we have seen three times growth so far.
We are expecting a revenue of Rs 35 crore this fiscal compared to Rs 5 crore last year. The annualised recurring return will be much higher, in the range of Rs 65-75 crore.
Usually, instant coffee makers use robusta coffee beans. Has using the costlier arabica beans helped you in the domestic market, which, apart from South India, prefers tea to coffee?
The market is changing with availability of good products. Nearly 75% of our sales are from parts of the country other than South India. From our research, we knew that caffeine kick and sensory aspects like taste and aroma are equally important for a coffee drinker. So, we decided to use arabica beans that provide good flavour and aroma.
Our products provide 90 to 120 mg of caffeine in a single serving, compared with 30 to 40 mg of many other instant coffees available in the market. It is comparable to high-end roasted coffee. We use crystallised freeze-drying process to preserve the aroma… We source coffee beans from Coorg and Chikmagalur, and from Ethiopia.
South India prefers filter coffee mostly. Considering that majority of your sales are from outside the region, do you have plans to offer filter coffee?
Yes, we are planning to launch it by the first week of September. It will be a blend of robusta and chicory with a dash of bitterness. We believe that if made in the right manner, it will have demand in the entire country. It will be our first robusta coffee product and one more addition to the ground coffee category.
What is the size of your institutional sales? Do you have corporate tie-ups?
Of our institutional sales, 80% goes to the hotel, restaurant and catering (Horeca) segment. We are exploring the possibility of tie-ups with corporates. In most cases, we can’t come to an agreement on the prices. Many organisations have coffee-vending machines, a segment we have not ventured into yet. But we have plans to enter the coffee equipment business later. However, our products find increasing use in corporate gifting.
Are you looking at associating with airlines or railways?
Yes, we are in talks with Spice Jet and Indian Railways. Pricing is the issue. But we think we can offer products cheaply with some changes. We need to change the packaging and weight without compromising on the quality of the product. We may have to use plastic packets, which could help avoid damage during shipment. We can cover the risk of lower margin through huge volumes. At present, the company uses natural materials for packaging.
Do you plan to expand outside the country?
We have presence in the US and in the UK in Europe. The instant coffee segment in the US is growing rapidly because of convenience aspect. We sell through Amazon and through independent retailers and specialty stores. Europe is not as big a coffee drinking nation as America.
We are also starting out in the Gulf region through the UAE. The region has a mix of instant coffee and commercial coffee equipment drinkers. Instant coffee has a good market in Saudi Arabia, where we have signed up with a distributor, and are in the process of dispatching the consignment.
Any new products in the pipeline?
We are looking at coffee concentrates, chewables, snacking and supplement items. Right now, 75% of the coffee sales is controlled by a few multinationals. With some products we have and some we are planning to launch, we will be directly competing with them. We are also in the process of R&D for introducing new flavours.
source: http://www.moneycontrol.com / MoneyControl.com / Home> News> Trends> Features / by PK Krishnakumar / August 24th, 2021
Estate owners urged to discourage it over COVID-19 fears.
Amidst the growing fears of an impending third wave of pandemic, it has now come to light that workers from Kerala bordering Kutta village in Kodagu were being employed in coffee estates and are shuttling daily by foot for work.
The State government has made it mandatory for those coming into the State from Kerala to carry an RT-PCR negative report not older than 72 hours irrespective of whether the travellers were vaccinated – either first or both doses of vaccine.
When former Speaker and Virajpet MLA K.G. Bopaiah visited the checkpost at Kutta on Tuesday to oversee the COVID-19 surveillance at the border over a spike in cases in the neighbouring State, he came to know about workers belonging to a Kerala village bordering Kodagu coming daily to Kutta by foot to work in the estates.
Mr. Bopaiah advised the coffee estate owners to provide accommodation to the workers after complying with the guidelines in case they have emergency works in their plantations and would like to employ workers from Kerala.
As per the district administration’s order, persons from Kerala travelling daily to Kodagu must carry out COVID-19 test once in 15 days and always carry the RT-PCR negative report with them. It is not clear whether the employers were cross-checking the details while engaging them in their estates.
“The task force set up in each gram panchayat must look into all various aspects for controlling COVID-19 in the border villages. It must work on preventing daily commuting of workers from Kerala to the border estates. This can help prevent the COVID-19 spread,” he opined.
The staff roped in from various departments for work at the checkposts in Karike, Kutta, Makutta and Sampaje in Kodagu have been categorically told to ensure that no vehicle enters the State without the travellers producing valid RT-PCR negative report not older than 72 hours.
The district officials have been told to continue with the guidelines issued based on the test positivity rate which is currently below 5 per cent. If the TPR crosses 5 per cent, stricter measures were needed.
About 40-50 vehicles from Kerala cross the border at Kutta daily.
source: http:// www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Mysuru – August 03rd, 2021
A file photo of a server collecting coffee from a container in a restaurant. | Photo Credit: K. Murali Kumar
‘Nations should jointly combat issues in coffee sector’
Coffee growing countries, India, Brazil, and South Africa, should collaborate to combat common challenges they face such as global price volatility, high cost of production, and labour shortage, suggested International Coffee Organisation (ICO).
At the opening session of the two-day IBSA Coffee Festival on Wednesday, ICO executive director Jose Sette said India, Brazil, and South Africa had several opportunities to work together to address common issues they face in the coffee growing, processing, and marketing fronts.
India produced over 3,20,000 tonnes of green coffee in the last harvest season that ended in March 2021. Karnataka alone accounts for over 70% of the country’s total coffee production, with Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru, and Hassan districts being the State’s coffee heartlands.
Coffee Board chairman M.S. Boje Gowda said, “It is great that we are joining hands with the international coffee community to improve the coffee scene of India and this exercise means a lot for coffee farmers across the country, and especially for an army of them in Karnataka.”
Suresh K. Reddy, Ambassador of India in Brazil, said coffee production had increased 34% in that country in the last two decades although the area under production had only reduced. Indian coffee community had to adopt cost-effective growing techniques and yield enhancing practices from Brazil, he recommended.
“We are also looking forward to collaborating with Brazil in enhancing domestic consumption of coffee in India,” said Mr. Reddy. India’s per capita coffee consumption is around 200 grams while it is 6 kg in Brazil.
Mr. Reddy further said time had come for the commodity apex body, Coffee Board, to position itself as a holistic organisation for the overall development, promotion, and growth of Indian coffee.
Jaideep Sarkar, High Commissioner of India in South Africa, said under the free trade agreements of WTO regime, it was tough for individual governments to promote their own coffees beyond a point and therefore working together was the best option for the global coffee growing community.
Andre Aranha Correa do Lago, Ambassador of Brazil in New Delhi, said, India was beginning to see a lot of speciality coffee coming via exports and this would open up newer opportunities for coffee entrepreneurs in India to process, value add, and re-export.
“We want to be part of the growing India coffee story and IBSA is an ideal platform for a unique partnership between these coffee producing countries,” Mr. Lago added.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Mini Tejaswi / Bengaluru – August 05th, 2021
White stem borers destroying a coffee plant. Credit: DH Photo
Arabica and Robusta coffee varieties grown in Kodagu are known for their quality.
Robusta variety is grown mostly in Madikeri and Virajpet taluks, while Somwarpet is known for arabica coffee.
The weather of Somwarpet is the best suited for the arabica variety, say the growers.
However, there are a lot of challenges before arabica coffee growers, the major one being the infestation of white stem borer (Xylotrechus quadripes).
The adult borers feed on the stem of the coffee plant and lay eggs inside the stem. Their season of reproduction is the months of March and April. During this period, the stem borers lay eggs on all plants in the coffee plantation.
In Somwarpet taluk, coffee is grown on 28,540 hectares of land. Arabica coffee is grown on 22,940 hectares and robusta is grown on 5,600 hectares.
Many growers have been switching to robusta as arabica is infested by the white stem borer.
Fed up by the borer menace, the plantation owners themselves have been asking the workers to uproot the arabica coffee plants that were nurtured for many years.
A lack of proper control measures is also one of the main reason for the growers to destroy the plants.
The arabica variety of coffee requires more care as compared to robusta. Meanwhile, the labour cost and the production costs are increasing, among other expenses towards manure and fertilisers.
Adding to the problem, the market rate is also disappointing the farmers.
Control measures
Experts have come up with a technique to trap female borer, by using the artificial pheromones of male borer insects, say authorities of the coffee board.
B R Jayendra, a coffee planter from Bettadalli, said that the control measure of white borer is consuming a lot of time, in the existing methods available.
By the time the borers are controlled, almost all plants are destroyed. Effective control measures are needed to save arabica coffee.
Taluk Coffee Growers’ Association president Mohan Bopanna said that the coffee planters are going through difficult times.
Like the Kerala model, the Karnataka government too should announce support price for coffee growers. The loans of coffee growers who are facing difficulties should be waived, he added.
Another coffee planter S M D’Silva from Abburukatte said it is almost impossible to destroy the affected plants at a time.
The small grower will be hit hard if they destroy all coffee saplings in the plantation, he said.
source: http:///www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> State> Mangaluru / by DHNS, Somwarpet / June 28th, 2021
Growers agree not to bring workers to estates from other places until June 21 as a measure to control the spread of infection
Coffee workers in Kodagu will soon get the jabs against COVID-19 with the authorities planning to launch vaccination drive in plantations for making the coffee land safe from the pandemic.
The support of large plantations and companies operating in the district has been sought for making it successful.
Former Speaker and MLA K.G. Bopaiah, who spoke about the vaccination plans, advised the owners of plantations not to use workers returning from COVID-19 Care Centres, after recovering from COVID-19, immediately for work in estates. They must be placed in quarantine for at least a week before redeployment.
“The owners must follow the guidelines and ensure control of the infection. Give priority for saving lives and health. The essential works in estates can be done using the locally available workers,” he said at a growers’ meeting in Madikeri on Thursday.
Various coffee growers’ associations in Kodagu have pledged support to the district administration for making Kodagu COVID-19 free even as the lockdown in the coffee land has been extended till June 21 based on its positivity rate.
The growers have resolved not to bring workers from other places for work in estates across Kodagu until June 21. It was decided to make use of the locally available workers.
Earlier, Mr .Bopaiah, who chaired the meeting, said COVID-19 was coming under control in Kodagu. However, there have been reports of infection being reported among workers coming here for work. “The estate owners must avoid bringing workers from other places for the time being. This measure can help us in fighting the pandemic effectively and preventing the spread,” he observed.
Mr. Bopaiah warned of seizing vehicles ferrying workers from other places.
The growers urged the former Speaker to take a delegation to New Delhi after the lockdown ends to highlight the plight of coffee growers and the difficulties faced by the industry.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Mysuru – June 11th, 2021
File picture of people from Assam working in a coffee estate near Arehalli in Belur taluk of Hassan district.
Workers from the north-east have not returned, affecting seasonal work ahead of the rainy days
Hundreds of plantation workers in Karnataka, who went to Assam to vote in the Assembly elections held in March-April this year, have not returned, affecting the seasonal work ahead of the rainy days.
Restrictions on public transport as part of the lockdown over the COVID-19 pandemic has not allowed them to travel, though they wish to come back.
Thousands of people from Assam and other neighbouring States in north-east India work in coffee estates of Hassan, Chikkamagaluru and Kodagu districts. They stay in the quarters provided by the planters and visit their native places once a year. Whenever elections are held, they take a break from work and travel to exercise their franchise.
Mahesh C.S., former president of Hassan District Planters’ Association, says many planters had not been able to complete tree pruning and plant pruning, mandatory seasonal work ahead of the rains. “Normally, we finish this work before June and keep the ground prepared with medicinal spray and manure. All these works have remained undone,” he said. Planters are forced to depend on local workers, who demand higher wages and work for fewer hours than the Assam workers do, he added. The wages for tree pruning, a skilled job, is around ₹700 to ₹800 a day. For other works, a worker gets around ₹300 to ₹350 in normal circumstances.
B.S. Jairam, former president of Karnataka Growers Federation, who has an estate in Mudigere Ttluk, is worried that the present situation could affect the production of coffee later this year. “The planters are already facing too many problems due to the pandemic. The payments are stuck due to restrictions on shipment and many have not recovered from the loss suffered in the floods in previous years. Only those who could retain workers in their quarters with sufficient supply of ration have completed the seasonal work”, he said.
Over the years local workers hardly stay in estate quarters. They reside in their villages and commute to estates daily by vehicles. But now they cannot do so as there are restrictions on vehicular movement “The police do not allow ferrying workers to estates. Only those settled in the nearby areas reach to the estates by walk and work,” he said.
Besides the people from Assam, many from the north Karnataka districts also work in the estates. They also return to their native places during March-April. This year they too could not return. Prasad Raxidi, a planter at Raxidi in Sakleshpur taluk, said the local workers were getting work and also good pay these days. “Only those who have returned from bigger cities after losing their jobs in the lockdown are not getting jobs that suit them,” he said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Sathish G T / Hassan – June 10th, 2021
The company is eyeing the Rs 100 crore artisanal coffee market.
Tata Consumer Products Ltd (TCPL) has introduced a premium roasted and ground coffee under the Sonnets brand targeting urban and increasingly discerning coffee drinkers in India. With this launch, the company is eyeing the Rs 100 crore artisanal coffee market .
The TCPL’s move marks its maiden foray into the Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) market. It will let the company tap a growing number of buyers shopping online, especially during the pandemic when most are cooped indoors and unable to visit cafes and coffee shops.
Puneet Das, President, Packaged Beverages, India & South Asia, Tata Consumer Products Limited, said, “The user can choose the roasting level, grounding and flavors of the coffee which gets delivered to the doorstep of the customer via our delivery channels. We are leveraging both premiumization and home delivery trends through this launch.”
The coffee is produced in Tata Coffee-owned estates. The consumer can choose his preferred roast type from between a light, medium, and a dark roast option, and could also suit his brewing preference and opt for either a filter coffee or a French press grind.
Tata Consumer Products will be expanding the offering to gourmet stores in metro cities as it scales up in the segment.
“Our ambition is to be seen as a serious coffee player just like we have equity in the market with Tata Tea. We aim to have a sizable share in the market as we grow,” Das added.
As the coffee culture evolves, the company will also evaluate new coffee variants like green coffee in India.
source: http://www.indianretailer.com / The Indian Retailer / Home> News / by Vaishnavi Gupta, Features Writer / June 03rd, 2021
Launched 3 years ago, Levista is eyeing expansion in south India, Mumbai and Delhi
S. Shriram, vice-president-sales and marketing at Levista
Coorg in Karnataka, is among the foremost coffee growing regions in India. SLN, a three-decade old coffee plantation company in the region is now aiming to grab a slice of the Rs 2,200-crore annual packaged coffee market, which is dominated by big players like Nestle (Nescafe), Hindustan Unilever (Bru) and Tata Coffee.
SLN launched its own brand of coffee called Levista three years ago and has ever since expanded to 40,000 retail outlets, predominantly in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. It has now set its sights on expanding across other markets, starting with the rest of south India.
“Of the Rs 2,200 crore market annually, over 80 per cent of the coffee consumption happens in the five southern states and Union territories. Therefore, we aim to reach a significant market share here rather than being sparsely spread all over the place,” S. Shriram, vice-president sales and marketing at Levista, told THE WEEK.
“At the moment, we have a deep presence in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. We launched our coffee in Goa in February and business is growing steadily. We will be entering the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana market by Sankranti and will penetrate deeper in there. Kerala will follow next.”
The company has the markets of Mumbai and Delhi-National Capital Region on the radar, too, however, it has not finalised a launch date yet, added Shriram.
Levista is also available on online platforms, including Amazon and it is also scaling up on other e-commerce platforms to reach a wider audience.
“Players like Big Basket have also aided our brand coverage, as has Flipkart. We have been recently on boarded through Udaan that reaches small retailers as well as hyperlocal players MilkBasket,” said Shriram.
While south India has a strong tradition of filter coffee, the rest of the country has largely been a tea drinking market. However, things have started changing with penetration of cafes like Cafe Coffee Day and Starbucks in the last decade. International coffee brands like Lavazza are also expanding in the country, buoyed by rising coffee consumption here.
“There is a huge scope for us to grow. The coffee market has been growing steadily. Out of home coffee consumption through cafes has already hit a pan-India presence and thanks to this familiarity, more new consumers are sipping coffee at home, through packaged coffee,” noted Shriram.
Levista’s parent SLN currently has a capacity upwards of 50,000 metric tonne per annum, and Shriram says the company will be able to produce enough coffee for the domestic market as well as for exports.
Talking of exports, the brand is already present in Singapore, Malaysia, Middle East, Maldives and Sri Lanka, reaching out to the south Indian consumers in these markets. The company intends to have a larger international presence next year, added Shriram.
source: http://www.theweek.in / The Week / Home> News> Business / by Nachiket Kelkar / November 20th, 2020
With temperatures rising and pests proliferating, Indian coffee growers are fighting challenges beyond their control.
Unpredictable rise in temperatures followed by an uncertain monsoon cycle has gradually started taking a toll on coffee yields. (Chevanon Photography, Pexels)
Coffee is the first thing I see, smell and taste in the day. But as caffeine-junkies like you or me ride the wave of premium specialty brews, we need to pay attention to growers across major regions in India, such as Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, who are battling a host of challenges due to a changing climate.
As spring transitions to summer, the pattern of unpredictable rise in temperatures followed by an uncertain monsoon cycle has gradually started taking a toll on yields and impacting the livelihood of coffee farmers.
Bengaluru based Tej Thammaiah, a co-founder of Maverick & Farmer Coffee Roasters and third-generation coffee farmer, says his team of growers on the 150-acre estate have meticulously documented the cultivation process to pinpoint the impact of increasing temperatures over the last decade. The mild, aromatic Arabica plant with its nuanced flavours, second only to Robusta in production volume in India, is highly susceptible to even the slightest change in climate. As temperatures increase, it hastens fruit ripening, leading to a loss in the overall quality of beans.
To fight this temperature change at estates such as Pollibetta in Coorg, his growers strive to find plots at higher, cooler elevations. But in this new environment, the finicky coffee fruit typically takes longer to mature. Moreover, changing plot locations is not a sustainable solution since coffee fruits in India are grown primarily in “shady” conditions, under a canopy of trees. And deforestation and logging is taking a toll everywhere.
It gets worse: When plants aren’t grown in ideal conditions, it leaves them more vulnerable to pests and diseases. Sunalini Menon, president of a coffee grading and training institute called Coffeelab in Bengaluru, mentions that a beetle known as white stem borer has been particularly harmful, spreading through India and Sri Lanka. It prefers plants exposed to sunlight and after burrowing in hard wood and roots as a larva, it hatches and feeds off the plant, destroying the woody tissue, leading to stems wilting and leaves yellowing. The beetle seems to have a particular liking for Arabica.
Not all hope is lost, though. Menon says India was one of the first countries to battle another infamous dweller, a fungus known as leaf rust, at the Mysore Coffee Experimental Station established by the British in 1925 at Chikmagalur, Karnataka. Known as the Central Coffee Research Institute, this research centre now run by the Coffee Board of India is researching and guiding growers on pest control, as well as initiatives such as diversifying shade patterns with local balsa and cedar trees and introducing new varietals of Arabica and Robust suited for tropical growth.
But she does believe it’s important to let go of the hesitancy to uproot plants. Farmers, perhaps for cultural reasons, have typically been hesitant to replant their land though research suggests that shorter plant life-cycles increase quantity, improve bean quality and even give growers some reprieve from emerging pests and diseases.
Ultimately, however, no practice can replace the tedious, time-consuming process of screening crops regularly. A task which falls squarely on growers.
Some shift to growing other crops. Those who stick it out, especially in smaller estates, need more support–in the form of agritourism, research on new techniques, investment in weather stations or, simply, from consumers.
If that doesn’t happen, we may in time find it increasingly difficult to get that morning fix.
For those new to coffee: Thammaiah suggests Selection 795 or Cauvery to taste domestic Arabicas (while we still can).
Nightcap is a column on beverages by Varud Gupta, author of Bhagwaan Ke Pakwaan and Chhotu. @varudgupta
source: http://www.lifestyle.livemint.com / Live Mint / Home> Mint Lounge> Food / by Varun Gupta / April 26th, 2021
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