Coffee consumption to touch over 125,000 tonnes

Bangalore: The Coffee Board of India has estimated consumption in India to be around 125,000 tonnes for 2013. Domestic consumption is growing at a rate of 5-6 per cent annually since 2010.

This is almost double the figure when compared with that of United States Department of Agriculture, which recently pegged the Indian consumption at 66,000 tonnes, while the International Coffee Organisation (ICO) has estimated it at over 100,000 tonnes. “We have commissioned a study to assess the exact consumption of coffee in India and the results of the study will be available by the end of December this year,” Coffee Board of India Chairman Jawaid Akhtar said. He said the domestic consumption was 58,000 tonnes in 1987 when the country's population was 820 million. In 2011, the consumption crossed the 1,00,000 tonnes mark, while the population touched 1.21 billion. “About 7-8 years ago, the domestic consumption was growing very slowly and now, it is growing faster. South India is the largest consumer of coffee at almost 75 per cent of the total consumption. The Coffee Board is making efforts to push the consumption in western, northern and eastern parts of the country,” Akhtar said.

“The Board is organising events like India International Coffee Festival (IICF) to project Indian coffee as 'good coffee' and specialty coffee. In this direction, we organised our IICF at New Delhi in 2012,” he said.

Recently, the ICO stated that the consumption of coffee is growing rapidly in exporting countries like Brazil, Indonesia and India. It has pegged the Indian consumption at 114,000 tonnes, showing a growth of 4.8 per cent annually.

“Assuming that the consumption has grown only at 5-6 per cent year on year since 2010, the consumption in 2013 could be in the range of 125,000 tonnes,” Akhtar told Business Standard.

The Coffee Board has pegged the production of coffee for the year 2013-14 at 347,000 tonnes in its post blossom estimates. However, the chairman stated that it could come down by at least 10 per cent due to heavy rains between June and August this year, which resulted into ‘wet foot’ and ‘black rot’ diseases.

In an effort to increase awareness about drinking coffee and its health benefits, the Coffee Board in association with India Coffee Trust is organizing the fifth edition of IICF 2014 at Bangalore from January 21 to 25, 2014.

“The event provides avenues for enterprise development through value addition while simultaneously contributing to the creation of skill based jobs, particularly in non-conventional coffee drinking areas at the consumer end. To facilitate entrepreneurial development, the Coffee Board has been providing training sessions on coffee roasting, brewing among others,” Akhtar said.

IICF 2014 is expected to see participation of 1,000 delegates for the conference and workshops and over 10,000 visitors at the exhibition. National and international experts in the coffee industry including policy makers, exporters, manufacturers and planters are likely to attend this flagship event of the Coffee Board.