The coffee industry of India is the sixth largest producer of coffee in the world, accounting for over four percent of world coffee production, with the bulk of all production taking place in its Southern states. India is most noted for its Monsooned Malabar variety. It is believed that coffee has been cultivated in India longer than anywhere outside of the Arabian peninsula.

Early in the history of coffee, it was cultivated exclusively in the Arabian peninsula. To maintain this monopoly on coffee production, the Arabians forbade the export of coffee beans that had not been roasted or boiled enough to prevent germination. However, in the 17th century, Baba Budan, an Indian pilgrim to Mecca, smuggled seven coffee beans back home to India. There he planted the beans in the Mysore region, establishing the first coffee plantation in India. By 1840, under British rule, India began to grow coffee for export.

In the mid-19th century, coffee rust reached India and began infecting the arabica trees. By 1869, the rust had become an epidemic. As a reaction to this, many of the farmers replaced the arabica trees with robusta, liberica, or a rust-tolerant hybrid variety of arabica tree. These more resistant trees are still commonly grown in India.

There are over 170,000 coffee farms in India, cultivating nearly 900,000 acres of coffee trees. Most coffee production in India is on small farms, with over 90 percent of all farms consisting of 10 acres or fewer. However, such farms account for just over half of all land used for coffee production and a minority of all coffee produced.

Most coffee in India is grown in three states: Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamilnadu. These states accounted for over 92 percent of India's coffee production in the 2005-2006 growing season.

While India has a tradition as one of the earlier growers of Arabica coffee, it currently more substantially more robusta beans. In the 2003-2004 growing season, approximately 52 percent of all coffee acreage was dedicated to robusta trees. However due to the higher yields of this tree, robusta accounted for 64 percent of all coffee produced in India.

India exported over 440,000 pounds of coffee in the 2005-2006 season, slightly less than in 2005 and nearly 5 percent less than 2004. Over a quarter of the India's coffee exports go to Italy. Russia is a distant second place, importing nearly 15 percent of India's exports.   For more info go to http://coffee.wikia.com/wiki/Coffee_industry_of_India

 

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