India International Coffee Festival to be held from Jan. 16

City to host 7th edition of 4-day event

After a gap of four years, Bengaluru will host the seventh edition of India International Coffee Festival (IICF) in January 2018. This gains significance as India has bagged the chance to host World Coffee Conference of International Coffee Organisation (ICO) in 2020.

“IICF will be a semi-final before we host the world coffee conference,” said Srivatsa Krishna, secretary, Coffee Board of India, at a curtainraiser. The festival, organised by India Coffee Trust, will be held from January 16 to 19 at Hotel Lalit Ashok. India Coffee Trust, a non-governmental organisation formed by various stakeholders of the India coffee industry, has added promotion of domestic coffee consumption and coffee tourism to the goals of the festival this year.

This edition of IICF is unique as it also aims to promote coffee tourism in the State. “Today is the age of experiential tourism and coffee plantations of the State and its homestays offer an unparalleled experience in India. We are trying to promote Chikkamagaluru, Kodagu and Hassan as coffee tourism destinations,” said Priyank Kharge, Minister of State for tourism.

IICF will have over 500 international delegates, seven skill building workshops in roasting, brewing and post-harvest technologies, apart from an expo where over 60 companies will exhibit latest coffee-related technologies. A startup pavilion will also be part of the festival, said a statement. The statement added that a golf championship for key delegates and speakers will be held at Bangalore Golf Club.

Promoting coffee

India is still largely a tea consuming country — data pegs per capita annual consumption of coffee at 17 cups as opposed to 177 cups of tea. Coffee brewing and vending machines will be set up in several public places with large footfall. The Coffee Board of India is spearheading the project. “Leading firms, such as Coco Cola, have bid for the brewing machine project. Once we finalise the design, we want to target 10,000 brewing machines under the brand name India Coffee in places with large footfalls, including government buildings,” Mr Krishna said.

Anil Kumar Bhandari, president, ICT, said IICF will be a platform for branding Indian coffee in the international market. The Coffee Board of India is working on an international branding campaign under the name India Coffee. “We are in the process of evaluating pitches by six leading brand builders to brand India Coffee, which will take off in the first quarter of 2018 and will mainly focus on the digital medium,” said Mr. Krishna.