Dear esteemed Coffee Industry Members,

It gives us immense pride to write to you with the following information.

Our family which comprises Coffee manufacturers/ Traders, Restaurants/ Cafes', growers Coffee Distributors/Retailers, Coffee Vendors, Coffee machine manufacturers, Coffee related industries have strongly contributed towards the growth of the domestic market until now.

It is well known that hardly 20% of the World Coffee Economy is accounted by the coffee growers and the green coffee traders within the producing countries. The remaining 80% of the coffee economy revolves around the activities of all others in the coffee chain. In a producing country for historical reasons the emphasis has always been on coffee growers and marketing of the green beans. As a result all other stages in the coffee chain did not receive adequate recognition or encouragement for sustained growth. In such of the markets the value addition levels found an enabling environment the growth of the coffee industry has been phenomenal.

Fortunately in India with the booming economy in the recent years we have an opportunity to ride on this accelerated growth of the economy and devciop a strong, sustainable and mutually beneficial coffee market in the country. If we can draw some lessons from the manner in which the coffee industry in other markets organized itself we see an opportunity for us to galvanize the efforts of large number of stakeholders in the domestic coffee market and create a Forum not only to do net working as usually happens with most of the associations but also pro-actively undertake programmes for building the capacities of the existing players in the chain as well as increasing the reach of the coffee sector by facilitating entry of many more entrepreneurs with various capacity building programmes.

From our interactions with different Government organizations having a bearing on the coffee sector activities, we recognize that there is an ample opportunity to access assistance through various programmes of these agencies to dove-tail into the capacity building programmes that we need to undertake for the sector as a whole. We firmly believe that strengthening of down stream is an essential pre-requisite to provide long term sustainability to coffee economy in the country. In this regard for the present stage of development there is space for far more divergent stake holder groups to have opportunity in the coffee sector than hitherto known in the traditional sense of the Indian coffee market.

There is a great scope for maximizing the mutual benefit of divergent stake holder groups, conventional as well as emerging stakeholder groups. There is much to be gained by the convergence of efforts of these groups instead of the segregated efforts of several stakeholder groups. This is how the coffee industry in the mature market has organized itself and we need to move forward on the similar lines.

With fast changing technology relevant for coffee sector at various stages of its processing, ever changing statutory and regulatory environment with the changing consumer preferences and ever increasing awareness levels among environmental, health concerns, the members of the coffee family will have to be constantly keep appraised with the technology and regulatory systems to take advantage of the changes taking place not only within the industry but outside. This effort cannot be made by the individual members or any particular group representing a segment of the coffee industry. Many developments taking place all around us have potential to give differential benefits to the different groups of the members. Therefore, a collective approach to master these developments and remain on top of these developments all the time is need of the hour.

Hence the need to bring the entire coffee family under one umbrella.

To meet the challenges in the present market scenario, it is proposed to form an Association at the National Level, encompassing the entire coffee family committed towards the domestic consumption of Coffee from the Coffee manufacturers/traders, Restaurants/ Cafes', Coffee Distributors/Retailers, Coffee Vendors, Coffee machine manufacturers, Coffee related industries with the following objectives.

• To provide information to the members of the association regarding the Technological developments, Statutory/ Mandatory requirements, Acts/ Laws related to Coffee/ Coffee related business.
• To assess the specific needs of different categories of members for skill and knowledge and plan and develop appropriately structured training programmes to address the assessed and felt needs of the different groups with the active association of the Govt bodies such as Coffee Board, BIS, CFTRI Commercial Tax Depts, Legal Metrology Dept, throughout the country for the benefit of the family.
• To provide an information base for the members with the list of manufacturers in the Coffee/ Coffee related field such as Roasters, Grinders, Packing Machines, Espresso machines, Coffee makers, Baristas, Retailers and organize need based frequent opportunities for development of strong and mutually beneficial linkages amongst all members.

We therefore request you to kindly give your valuable advise%suggestions so as to incorporate the same after due consultations with the experts. We will be happy if you could reply on or before 30th June 2008, to


Source : Fresh Cup, March 2008

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