Coffee

Floods ruins Karnataka coffee estates, facing heavy losses

With heavy rains and floods devastating Kodagu district, the country’s largest coffee-growing region is staring at heavy losses as many of its plantations are in ruins, a top official said.

“We were expecting a good coffee output this year, but due to heavy rains and floods, about 60 per cent of the berries in the district have been destroyed,” Coffee Board Chairman M.S. Boje Gowda told IANS here.

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Noting that rains and landslides had eroded the top soil and excess moisture damaged the coffee estates, Gowda said hundreds of planters and small growers would have to wait a year for the new berries to sprout and ripen.

“With more southwest monsoon rains forecast till September, we are worried if the plantations will be further affected,” observed Gowda.

With 45,000 growers producing 40 per cent of India’s coffee, Kodagu contributes a major quantity of the aromatic beverage. Its adjacent districts — Chikkamagaluru and Hassan, the region in the southern state’s Western Ghats — account for 70 per cent of the country’s bean production.

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“With more southwest monsoon rains forecast till September, we are worried if the plantations will be further affected,” observed Gowda.

“The growers are likely to incur a cumulative loss of Rs 675 crore due to the damage to their plantations as the average coffee price is Rs 1.5 lakh per tonne,” lamented Karnataka Planters’ Association (KPA) member N. Bose Mandanna.

With plantations water-logged, hundreds of workers have shifted to the relief camps the state government has set up, while others have moved out of the region.

“As the coffee sector is labour-intensive, 70 per cent of the expenditure is spent on workers — towards their wages and social costs, including provident fund, health, education of their children and housing,” noted Mandanna.

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The Coffee Board and the KPA have urged the Union Commerce Ministry to waive loans of the planters and growers to enable them recover from the huge losses.

The KPA also wants the state-run banks to give loans at three per cent interest rate as in the case of farmers.

Read more: The News Minute

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