Ready-to-serve filtered coffee in the offing

Bangalore, Sept 24: Coffee connoisseurs across the country will soon have their hot beverage in a new format, sachet, with a shelf life of about 30 days.

Filtered coffee concentrate with milk and sugar could be added to hot water and hot coffee could be served in a jiffy, avoiding the complexity involved in brewing filtered coffee.

Talking to sources here, Coffee Board Chairman G V Krishna Rau said research was in an advanced stage and a match making was necessary between the brewers and few interested parties to take the initiative forward. Soon the product might be launched on a pilot basis in select districts of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, the main coffee drinking States of the country.

He said that to ensure uniformity, the Coffee Board would soon be introducing a new initiative of transparency seal, under which a consumer could be aware of the contents of pure coffee in blended power. Normally, chicory was permitted to be blended with coffee power under the provisions of law. Though retailers mentioned the percentage of the blend, there was no facility to test the purity of coffee. However, the Board would soon be getting such machines, in vogue in Brazil, he added.

Stating that the domestic market for coffee had not shrunk with the annual consumption being around 80,000 tonnes, he said coffee consumption had infact shown an increasing trend in Karnataka, compared to Tamil Nadu. Besides, with the market dominated by neighbourhood roasters who hardly have the initiative to move to new areas, any major expansion was not possible unless large players come into the picture.

Mr Rau said that even 11 years after deregulation of coffee in India, the domestic consumption hovered around 28 per cent of the total production, the same as during the controlled regime. The domestic consumption had infact gone down to 20 per cent six years ago. However, it had now regained its old position, he added. He said value addition, instead of green bean exports, could help increase the employment potential in the sector in the country.

Apart from over 500,000 workers involved in the plantation sector, every tonne of coffee consumed in the country generated employment for ten people. The figure could be 800,000, taking into considertion the coffee consumed in the country, he added.

To a question, he said there should be a concerted effort even from the growers community and traders to promote domestic consumption as promotion could not be carried out by the Government alone. The players of the industry have understood the reality and now efforts would be made in a coordinated manner, he hoped.

Mr Rau said the current year's green bean production in the country was expected to be around 280,000 to 285,000 tonnes as against the post blossom forecast of 303,000 tonnes. The actual estimate would be available only after November when the North East monsoon would have exited. The reduction in estimate was mainly due to the likely fall in arabica coffee production due to pest disease.

As against 127,000 tonnes of arabica production last year, the figure this year was likely to be less by about 15,000 tonnes.

On the export front, he said India needed to stress more on washed arabica and washed robusta and draw up strategies to suit the importing country's requirement. Washed Arabica was the mildest coffee and of superior quality when compared to production in other countries.

UNI