Plantation conference under way at Coonoor in Tamil Nadu focuses on branding

Sessions were also held on carbon markets and green finance for the plantation sector and emerging trends and innovations in the tea sector

Jeffry Rebello (second left) president of UPASI, and C. Shreedharan (left), vice president of UPASI, at an exhibition organised by the United Planters Association of Southern India in Coonoor on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: M. SATHYAMOORTHY

The United Planters Association of Southern India (UPASI)’s two-day annual conference that started on Wednesday, September 13, 2023, in Coonoor focuses on the theme of “branding” and on the emerging carbon market.

K.G. Jagadeesha, CEO and secretary of Coffee Board, urged the coffee stakeholders to talk more about Indian coffee. “All of us should talk about Indian coffee,” he said.

Saeed Al Suwaidi, Director of Agri Commodities, Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, Dubai, spoke about the facilities at the Centre for tea and coffee and how Indian origin teas and coffees can use the facilities to reach customers across the world. The largest coffee producers are not the largest exporters too. So the growers are trying to change this dynamics, he said and added, “We enable packing and exporting high end teas.” Further, “Traceability is important and we are working with companies to implement technology and fix traceability issues in tea and coffee,” he said.

Marc Torno, founder of Coffee Ideas, spoke about potential for speciality coffees in India, and Sushant Dash, CEO of Tata Starbucks, spoke on the coffee landscape in India.

There were also sessions on carbon markets and green finance for the plantation sector and emerging trends and innovations in the tea sector.

The UPASI also organised an exhibition in which 62 stalls displayed agro inputs, implements, processing technologies, etc for plantation commodities.