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ShareBangalore: Coffee growers in India do not seem to have a taste for specialty coffee even though it commands a price 30-50% higher than ordinary coffee in the market. The longer gestation periods, high input and marketing costs seem to be the reason for this.
Specialty coffee is high quality coffee that has to be grown, plucked, and processed in a different way than the bulk. And after that the grower has to find a suitable market for it and only when that market is created will he get certified as a specialty coffee grower.
India is the 7th largest producer of coffee in the world. But when it comes to specialty coffee it is nowhere. Less than 10%, or just 20,000-25,000 tonnes, of the country's coffee produce can be termed as specialty coffee. Most sell their coffee as bulk without differentiating the produce that can be branded as special.
According to Sunalini Menon, chief executive of independent coffee testing laboratory Coffeelab Pvt. Ltd., there is huge untapped potential since at least 25% of the produce in every coffee farm can be turned into special coffee. But growers have to go the extra mile for getting buyers to visit their plantations or even travel abroad to pitch for their coffee.
The high cost of production is the deterrent. A grower may have to spend 15% more to
produce specialty coffee apart from incurring branding and marketing costs.
For instance, Nishant Gurjare owner of Sethuraman Estate, who produces 54 tonnes of specialty coffee and exports it to the US. Some have taken to the Internet to market their coffee apart from making frequent foreign trips. But mindsets are changing and in the last three years the number of speciality coffee growers have increased by 30-40%. Alok Gupta, director of Café Coffee Day, said although the chain sells specialty coffee from Chikmagalur and parts of Andhra Pradesh, the awareness and demand from consumers is still not there.
Brand consultant Harish Bijoor said that growers often take the path of least
resistance and hence even if the returns are high the efforts to get there may be the deterrent.
Some of the varieties grown in India are Monsoon Malabar, Robusta Kappi Royale and Mysore Nuggets. The main buyers of specialty coffee are in America, Europe and Japan. There are Specialty Coffee Associations that can assist the grower and help him sell his produce too.
