Words from Asia’s First Lady of Coffee

What are the milestones achieved by India after liberalisation of the Indian coffee market in 1995?

Focus on quality of coffee during processing and marketing has hugely increased. Indian coffee farmers are now travelling overseas and participating in coffee conferences and exhibitions to market their coffee. Market linkages have been established, especially in relationship marketing. There has been significant branding of Indian coffees as well, making the coffee world note that India produces excellent Arabica and Robusta coffees.

How is the green coffee industry changing?

Traceability and certification are very important factors in the international coffee market.
Block chain marketing is now taking place with direct sales between buyer and seller.
Today green coffee is also getting brewed in different ways, thereby bringing in innovation and technology in agricultural practices and in processing techniques. This ensures that the quality of green beans will be so developed that they can be utilised to brew coffee through different brewing methodologies. Processing variants in the preparation of green beans have taken the centre stage.
Cafes are opening their doors in producing origins such as in China and Vietnam. Thus they are helping in increasing the consumption of coffee in the coffee producing countries and changing, to an extent, the green coffee industry which had been catering mainly to the coffee consuming countries in the past.

What’s the role of India in the global coffee market?

India plays a fairly important role in the espresso market with roasters who roast for espresso blends, finding that our Indian coffees can provide a great base for their espresso blends.
Preparation of microlots, through variation in processing techniques, has helped in providing a basket of flavours to the global coffee market.
At present Robusta coffee is 40% of the world market and Indian Robusta is rated as a high quality Robusta in the international market, with premium prices being paid for our quality Robusta coffees.

How big is the export market for Indian coffee?

75% of our coffee is exported.

What’s the importance of packaging when it comes to coffee export?

Packaging is a very crucial aspect for exports of both green and roasted coffees. In case of green coffee, the most important requirement is to preserve the intrinsic quality of the green coffee beans, especially in protecting and ensuring the moisture content in the coffee beans, to ensure shelf-life and retention of quality. In the case of roasted and ground coffee, it is important to preserve the aromatics and flavours of the coffee, which necessitates good packaging material.
Today, hermetically sealed bags are utilised to pack green coffee beans to preserve the intrinsic quality of the green beans.