Koraput coffee, a single origin specialty coffee grown by the tribal districts of Odisha, is poised to make its presence felt globally with Tata coffee, a subsidiary of the Tata group giving consent to commercially procure the produce.
The coffee grown in Koraput promoted as ‘Koraput Coffee’ has already gained consumers’ acceptability in the national market through e-commerce platforms for its organic value and delicious flavour.
Lauding the endeavour of local tribal settlers in excelling in quality coffee cultivation, chief minister Naveen Patnaik said “Tata Coffee has given its consent to procure the coffee from Koraput and market it at national and international level without tampering with its quality and flavor”.
For the first time, Tata Coffee is buying coffee from Odisha thereby promoting the beans which are exclusive, solid and rich in taste allowing experiencing local flavours of Koraput. The higher altitudes and the cool temperature have emerged as conducive factors for coffee plantation in these parts.
Highlighting the government’s patronage to coffee plantations, he said “the government has allotted 46,000 acre of forest land to 30,000 tribal families for the purpose till date. The Tribal Development Cooperative Corporation of Orissa Ltd (TDCCOL) has already collected 28,790 kg of coffee cherry from 193 tribal farmers in the district”
As the State battled raging pandemic and people lost livelihood, the coffee farming played a pivotal role in ensuring livelihood to the tribals during these trying times, he said.
Eulogizing individual endeavours of coffee farmers, Patnaik said “the woman farmer Sulochana Khar of Kasampadar village has emerged as an ideal farmer in the district. She has already sold more than 200 kilograms of coffee seeds to TDCCOL and become an inspiring figure for other farmers,”
The 100 percent arabica coffee is indigenous to the state of Odisha as everything about the beans is sourced from the state itself. Across Koraput, coffee is grown in Laxmipur, Kashipur, Dasmantpur, Nandpur, Lamtaput, Koraput, Potangi and Nandpur blocksT. This year around 28,790 KG of Coffee Cherry was procured from 193 numbers of tribal farmers.
The State government is promoting Koraput coffee and the SC and ST department is making a strategy to increase the area under coffee cultivation and thereby benefit the tribal livelihoods.
District Collector Koraput Mr Abdaal Akhtar said “We are doing 80 hectares new coffee plantation this year in 2021-22”
“We have sent the samples of Koraput coffee to Tata coffee, they found its quality to be very good”. TDCCOL started selling Koraput coffee in 2019 through their retail outlet Adisha”, said Managing Director Tribal Development Cooperative Corporation of Orissa Limited (TDCCOL) Mansi Nimbhal
This year, we can expect the produce to be more than the last year as the training and capacity building of the coffee growers has been started in the early phase starting from pre-harvest management with the help of TDCOOL and SLO Coffee Board of India.
The marketing support and the tie ups with institutions such as Tata Coffee have provided a new ray of hope to the coffee farmers. The tie ups will create a greater impact to the tribals ensuring livelihood security to the households during the times of crisis.