The Brahmagiri Development Society (BDS), a people’s initiative in Wayanad, in association with the Coffee Board, is gearing up to launch a comprehensive development project to promote coffee-based livelihood in Wayanad district, a major Robusta coffee growing region in the country.
Speaking to media persons here on Friday after handing over a business opportunity analysis and plan of the project, B.J. Aswinkumar, research chair, Coffee Board, said that the new initiative envisaged to enhance the incomes of coffee growers in the district by creating a market for value-added coffee products that were produced by using coffee growing in the region.
Opportunities
The report comprehensively describes the opportunity in terms of market trends, resource endowments, policy support, technology and growth prospects, with a focus on grower support services, value addition and income enhancement.
According to the project, coffee beans would be procured from small growers at support price and would be marketed after value addition under the brand of ‘Malabar Coffee’, he said.
Procurement centres would be set up in various parts of the district and training programmes organised for coffee growers to produce quality coffee beans by following organic methods of cultivation.
A processing centre would be set up at Panamaram with a roasted and grounded coffee powder making unit at a cost of ₹70 lakh in the initial phase. The possibility of launching instant coffee powder was also on the anvil.
The State budget provisions also involve the establishment of a modern coffee processing unit in Wayanad and to brand the Wayanad coffee which was grown in the carbon neutral green zones of the district, P. Krishnaprasad, chairman, BDS, said.
The BDS’s proposed project also aimed at benefiting from the Geographical Indication (GI) tag which had been awarded to ‘Wayanad Robusta Coffee’ by the Geographical Indications Registry in March 2019, he said.
The BDS sought to launch its initiative to promote Wayanad coffee and and spices in tune with the government of Kerala’s budget proposals so as to result in increased incomes for growers and sustainable development of the region’s plantation sector with a focus on small grower livelihoods, he said.
