India makes a song and dance over troubled coffee

India's coffee market is on a high, even if prices are low.

From a rock band singing songs about coffee to glitzy promotional films filled with beautiful women and stunning landscapes, India is trying to change its image as a producer of cheap beans to a major source of speciality coffees.

For a country normally associated with tea, the campaign, launched last year, appears to be working.

Specialty and premium grades accounted for 4,884 tonnes of Indian exports in the year to March 2002, up from 4,096 tonnes a year earlier. For the year 2002-03, it leapt to 6,843.7 tonnes.

In April, India was the focus country at the annual conference of the Specialty Coffee Association of America in Boston.

A jury at the conference picked the winners in a tasting contest for Indian estates honoured with 'Fine Cup' awards.

Delegates were also treated to the song 'Coffee Karma,' part of India's pitch to join the lucrative league of countries that promote organic farming and fair trade.

In the song, the rock band's lead singer cries out 'Kaaaaapi,' imitating hawkers in the country's crowded railway stations, in a piece that blends Indian sounds with a rock rhythm.

In promotional films, elephants walk amid cherry-red berries near coffee bushes tended by women in traditional saris in an enchanting mountain landscape.

In need of a fix

Coffee is near 30-year lows and India faces strong competition from major growers Vietnam, Indonesia and several South American countries. Specialty brews fetch higher margins but India's coffee industry is also trying to improve quality across the board.

India produces 4.5 per cent of the world's coffee and exports 70 to 80 per cent of its output.

About 37 per cent of the estimated output of 275,275 tonnes in the crop year to September this year are arabica varieties, which fetch export premiums.

But robusta, India's staple, has been hit by cut-rate competition from Vietnam, which has ramped up production in recent years and pushed down global prices.

Robustas are normally used to make instant coffee while arabicas tend to be used in high-end coffee shops or drip-filter machines at home.

The state-run Coffee Board has been trying to

Estate-branded coffees, and others sold by advertising the details of growing regions or production process, are considered significant enough for grades to be branded as specialties.

In the past 18 months, India has hosted delegations of specialty coffee associations from the United States, Europe and Japan, and the Coffee Board has taken potential buyers on estate visits.

With labour conditions governed by welfare laws, planters say Indian coffees also meet the standards of fair trade required by connoisseurs of specialty coffees.

"So far robustas are not considered to be a specialty. For the first time, buyers recognised robustas from India as a specialty," said Ashok Kuriyan, president of India's fledgling specialty coffee association, speaking of the Boston meeting.

Sunalini Menon, chief executive of quality tester Coffeelab Pvt Ltd and India's best-known coffee guru, told Reuters the gathering in Boston helped India register itself as a coffee grower in a market which so far associated the country primarily with tea.

Reviving robusta

India is well known for the Monsooned Malabar variety of arabicas, long considered to be a specialty, but varieties like "Robusta Kaapi Royale" are gaining ground. The premiums vary, depending upon the specific features of each grade.

"Robusta need not be treated as a dirty word," Menon said. "People who had shunned robustas for a long time looked at it with an open mind and were pleasantly surprised."

While the arabica cherry grade fetches around Rs 50 a kg, the monsooned variety sells for about Rs 75.

A washed robusta parchment sells for Rs 43 a kg, while specialty grade Robusta Kaapi Royale fetches three rupees more.

"Specialty is a growing market but still small. India has been particularly successful in the Italian market," said Ramesh Rajah, president of India's Coffee Exporters Association.

Indian growers aim to sell 60,000 tonnes per year to Italy's espresso market, having raised the figure to 40,000 tonnes from 25,000 tonnes five years ago.

Specialty grades could provide an edge. Indian exporters aim to displace West African robustas in the Italian market.