A group of 12 tribal coffee farmers from different mandals of Visakhapatnam Agency such as Paderu, Chintapalli, G.K.Veedhi, G. Madugula and Anantagiri, who were taken to Bengaluru, participated in the coffee tender process there on Thursday. They will also see the e-auction process on July 13.
The Vice Chairman and MD, Girijan Cooperative Corporation (GCC), Vigilance officers and General Managers also attended.
As per directions of the government, GCC has taken a facilitator role by giving market support to coffee farmers. The objective is to eliminate middlemen and other traders and support coffee growers.
GCC started this activity during 2015-16 and procured about 1410 MTs of raw coffee during current year. The entire coffee procured from tribals is being processed at the APFDC Coffee Curing Centre, Narsipatnam, and is being separated grade-wise separated into parchment/cherry coffee as AA Grade, A Grade, B Grade, BB Grade, C Grade and Bits and Blacks, mandal-wise and put up for auctions through NEML e- platform, according to a statement issued here on Thursday.
The coffee is grown in a natural environment without using any pesticides / fertiliser and organic by default. However, GCC is trying to fetch better price by marketing coffee in different grades, so that better sale value is realised.
GCC has been paying high prices for the coffee farmers at ₹151 for Parchment Coffee and ₹82 for Cherry Coffee per kg. This is about ₹15 to ₹20 more than the price paid by private traders to tribal farmers. The prices of coffee are highly volatile and depend on international market based on Dollar to Rupee conversion value and other coffee derivatives. The prices are fixed on a day-to-day basis by the Coffee Board.
Better price
Most of the coffee traders and coffee export houses are based at Bangalore, and in order to fetch better price to coffee farmers, the Vice Chairman and Managing Director, GCC Ltd., is trying to negotiate with these marketers. A team of officers visited the Coffee Board and had detailed discussions with exporters and ICTA (Indian Coffee trade Association) officials. For greater transparency in marketing of coffee, the tribal coffee farmers from Visakhapatnam Agency areas are also involved. Accordingly initially auction-cum-tender process was held at Vijayawada in June 2018 in the presence of tribal coffee growers.
The VC and MD interacted and had detailed discussions with all the coffee traders and export houses at ICTA auction hall in Bengaluru and sought their patronage for the Araku Valley Coffee, which is pure andorganic.
All the tribal coffee farmers are being taken to the coffee plantations at Hassan Hills and Sakileshpur Forest. The Coffee Board will give orientation on best harvesting practices to all tribal coffee farmers on Friday.
