The Coffee Board launched a project funded by the International Coffee Organisation (ICO) to boost domestic consumption of the beverage. The one-year project will focus on capacity building and carry out promotion activities in local languages to increase the domestic consumption, said Coffee Board quality head K Basavaraj.
India, the seventh largest producer of coffee in the world, has an annual per capita consumption of about 100 g. Consumption has been growing at 4-5 per cent annually from the year 2000 and current consumption is in excess of 1one lakh tonnes, Basavaraj said. Currently, coffee is exported by producers in bulk as green and unroasted beans with most value addition taking place in consuming countries. ICO believes that coffee-producing countries can capture more benefit from promoting domestic consumption. Also, having a large domestic market can help reduce price volatility for growers.