Coffee Farmers’ Distress Comes to an End in Wayanad

Coffee farmers of Wayanad, have met their initial success with the first consignment of coffee beans getting exported to the Gulf by the Brahmagiri Development Society. 

Five tonnes of graded coffee beans under the Wayanad Coffee brand have been shipped to Kuwait through the Cochin Port. The export incursion by the Society has come after it started fetching coffee from the farmers.

Wayanad in north Kerala grows around 50,000 to 60,000 tonnes of robusta coffee annually, making it the prominent region in the country cultivating the variety.

Brahmagiri Development Society, a cooperative of 13000 farmers, in Wayanad, which came into limelight with the production of various meat under the brand Malabar Meat, is gearing up to play a stellar role in the branding of Wayanad coffee too.  

Instant coffee can be sold for Rs 3,000-7,000 per kg bringing more revenue to the growers. Besides the special aroma of Wayanad coffee, its growth in the semi-forest area helps in environment protection. 

As different countries in the world adopt various methods to protect workers, India has taken an innovative approach. The question being, will it work.

The society has begun steps for 1,200 farmers in six panchayats to get organic certification to better place the product in the export market.

They have already received a couple of orders, including another export order as well. They are trying to move ahead with enabling farmers to take organic farming certification and in the first phase, 1,200 will take the certification. This will enable the farmers from Wayanad to get more acceptance in export markets.

The coffee farmers had been hit hard by price crash partly due to drying up of orders from their major export markets following the nationwide lockdown.