Coffee Board seeks export sops

Faced with slowing exports, the Coffee Board has pitched for more incentives and financial support in the 12th Plan period (2012-17) to help the industry enhance shipments of value-added products.

“We have proposed that support for value-added coffee grains should be increased to Rs 2 per kg from Re 1 and for high value markets like the US and Japan, it should be hiked to Rs 3 per kg from Rs 2,” Coffee Board Secretary M Chandrashekar said, adding, “The move would also help in reducing transactions cost of the industry players.”

The Board has also asked for continuing existing schemes and incentives.

India, the world’s sixth biggest coffee producer, exports the brew to Italy, Russia, Germany, Slovenia, Belgium among other countries.

Karnataka accounts for some 70 per cent of the country’s coffee production.
Chandrashekar said the government was also considering a proposal to form a separate scheme for transfer of technology and capacity building to strengthen the transfer of R&D findings to the field.

India’s coffee exports fell 9.15 per cent to 3,09,570 tonnes during calendar year 2012 due to weak international prices, tight domestic supply and drop in demand arising from global economic slowdown.

Export earnings from coffee shipments fell 16 per cent to $ 142.46 million in the first quarter of 2012-13 coffee year from $ 169.46 million in the same period of previous coffee year.