The United Planters’ Association of Southern India (UPASI) has expressed concern over declining productivity and mounting costs faced by coffee growers in India due to climate change.
Erratic weather patterns leading to prolonged dry spells, unseasonal rains, and increased pest infestations continued to pose a serious challenge to coffee production in India, the Association said in a press note.
India’s average coffee productivity declined from 947 kg per ha in 2000 to 814 kg per ha in 2023, with Arabica productivity seeing a drop from 815 kg per ha to 464 kg per ha during the same period.
Further, the coffee plantations were highly labour-intensive, making wage costs a crucial component of production.
Lack of sufficient reinvestment in estate infrastructure due to poor profitability over the years had exacerbated the decline in land and labour productivity.
The UPASI president K. Mathew Abraham said coffee prices were subdued for a long duration and during this phase, the cost variable had increased manifold. India, with 3.6% share of global production and 4.8% of global export, was a price taker and the current price increase was largely on account of global shortfall.
The present hike in coffee prices were mainly because of the global shortfall in production. Concerns on Brazilian crop and Vietnam crops due to bad weather conditions and Columbia, the third largest producer, facing geo-political tensions contributed to market volatility in prices.
However, these do not support the coffee plantations to meet the mounting costs, the UPASI said.
The Association sought implementation of labelling standards distinguishing pure coffee and coffee chicory mixture with specifications on the front side of package as proposed by Coffee Board.
Published – March 01, 2025 09:01 pm IST
