Introduction

In India, coffee is grown in regions that receive 2,500-4,000 mm rainfall for more
than 100 days, followed by a continuous dry period of a similar duration. Coffee
growing areas in the country have diverse climatic conditions, which are suitable
for the cultivation of different varieties of coffee.

Coffee, native of Ethiopia, was introduced into India sometime during 1600 AD by
a Muslim pilgrim, Baba Budan on the hills near Chikmangalur. Coffee seedlings
were then planted in the backyards and it was not until the late 1820 s that
commercial plantations were started in South India by British entrepreneurs. Now
coffee cultivation is mainly confined to the States of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamilnadu
ND Andhra Pradesh and on a limited scale to Arunachala Pradesh, Assam, Madhya
Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalayaa, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Sikkim, Tirupura and
West Bengal. The present area under coffee is 2,43,117 hectares of which arabica
accounts for 49.41 % and robusta 50.59 % with a total production of about
1,75,000 tonnes . About 60 % is exported annually earning around Rs. 300 crores
and rest consumed internally. There are 99,000 registered growers of whom
97.13% are small growers with 10 hectares and below. This plantation employs
about 3, 71,655 workers.

Key Markets and Export Destinations

 India is the third-largest producer and exporter of coffee in Asia, and the
sixth-largest producer and fifth-largest exporter of coffee in the world.
 The country accounts for 3.14% (2019-20) of the global coffee production.
 The coffee production stood at 299,300 million tonnes (MT) during 2019-
20P.
 The coffee production during 2020-21 is estimated at 342,000 million
tonnes (MT).

Export of Coffee from India

 The total coffee export was US$ 738.86 million between April 2019 and
March 2020.
 The total coffee export accounted for US$ 719.50 million from April 2020 to
March 2021 and for March 2021 it was US$ 97.41million.
 In April 2021, export of coffee stood at US$ 71.46 million.
  Of the total coffee produced in India, 70% is exported and 30% is consumed
domestically.

Coffee Board of India

The Coffee Board of India is engaged in the research, development, extension,
quality upgrade, and domestic and international promotion of Indian coffee. Since
2002, the board has been conducting the India International Coffee Festival, a
biennial event held in India in collaboration with other industry stakeholders.

Growth and Direction of Coffee Exports' in India; lndian coffee has carved out a
niche for itself in the international market. lndian Robusta ishighly sought after for
its blending quality. The key coffee importing countries are ltaly, Russia,Germany,
Belgium and Spain which accounted about 51 per cent of total coffee export from
lndiaand the rest 49 per cent exported to other countries in 2008-09.The present
study was undertakento know the growth in the quantity of export, value of
export, the unit money realized and also toassess the direction of export of
lndian coffee in the international market. The study was based onsecondary
data covering the period 1990-91 to 2008-09.The objectives were evaluated
usingpercentage, compound growth rate and Markov chain analysis.The results
disclose that the quantityof coffee exported from lndia, value exported, and unit
price realized are increasing a|3.62,7.52and 3.76 per cent per annum
respectively. The quantity of export is increasing at medium rate;however, the
growth in export value of coffee has increased largely due to increase in price
ofcoffee over the years in international market.The direction of trade showed
that ltaly, Russia andGermany were more stable cotfee importers from lndia
while, Belgium and Spain were less stable.The results thus indicate that there is a
wide scope to increase the export of coffee to globalmarkets.