SME Times News Bureau | 08 Dec, 2011
The Government is committed to supporting and facilitating the coffee industry, said Rahul Khullar, Commerce Secretary, while launching the India International Coffee festival 2012, on Wednesday.

Addressing the event, Khullar said, "As Coffee Industry in India in basically a private sector driven Industry, Government will confine its role of an enabler, facilitator & supportive partner. We will keep doing the promotional campaigns and solving the production related problems."

There are issues related to wages labour and need for mechanization are the pressing concerns that needs to be addressed, he added.

India is in the 6th position in the world in terms of production of coffee; India occupies 2 percent of the area and accounts for 4 percent of the total world production. It also accounts for the 4 percent of the world coffee exports.

India export in the year 2010-2011 is to the tune of 294362 metric tonnes and production in 2011-12 (provisional) is 322250 metric tonnes.

Jawid Akhtar Chairman Coffee Board informed that, the consumption of coffee in the non south regions have grown phenomenally with the northern states contributing to more than 50 percent of the growth at the rate of 40 percent YOY.

Coffee consumption in India has increased from 70,000 tonnes in 2003 to 1, 00,000 tonnes in 2009 of which more than 16,000 tonnes is contributed by the non conventional coffee drinking regions (North, West and East).

The main reason for the success of the cafés in India has been the significant shift in the demographics, increased urbanization and greater disposable income levels, he added.