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Sustainability Through Consumption theme of 5th World Coffee Conference
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Friday, 18 October, 2019, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Our Bureau, Bengaluru
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Sustainability Through Consumption is the theme of the fifth essay of the World Coffee Conference (WCC), which is slated to take place in Bengaluru between September 7 and 9, 2020. It will be organised by the International Coffee Organization (ICO) under the aegis of the United Nations and hosted by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India.
The conferences will be addressed by international speakers, and the event will also feature a coffee exhibition, buyer-seller meets, competitions and awards and skill building workshops.
Coffee, being the world’s most favorite beverage with 2.5 billion cups consumed every single day, is produced in about 78 countries. Most of them belonging to the developing regions like Africa, Latin America and Asia. India is the sixth largest producer of coffee in the world, accounting for about five per cent of the world coffee production.
With countries like India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Nepal accounting for almost 33 per cent of the world coffee production, and consumption growing anywhere between six per cent and 15 per cent as against the world average of about two per cent growth Y-o-Y (year-on-year), Asia has become a region of high importance in the coffee business.
Karnataka is the largest coffee growing state in India, producing about 70 per cent per cent of the total output of 3,19,500 tonne estimated by the Coffee Board in 2018-19. It is a great opportunity for the coffee fraternity to get associated with WCC 2020 to promote their brand, showcase new technologies and to grow distribution network with the biggest firms in coffee.
WCC 2020 will witness participation of 78 member countries of the International Coffee Organisation, of which India is one of the founding members. It will address the challenges with which farmers globally are battling, including climate change, increasing cost of production and falling prices.
C N Ashwath Narayan, deputy chief minister and minister for higher education and IT, BT and S&T (information technology, biotechnology and science and technology), Government of Karnataka, said, “The World Coffee Conference is a very important event for the state of Karnataka, as we grow more than 75 per cent of the coffee produced in the country.”
“We also need to take this more seriously, as it will address the concerns of many players. It is the maiden entry of this event in Asia, and on behalf of our government, I would like to assure that we will extend our full support to make this event a grand success,” he added.
“Furthermore, Karnataka being a technology hub, blockchain technology can play an important part in the growth of coffee business in India,” Narayan stated.
“As the coffee capital of India, Karnataka accounts for 68.7 per cent of India’s coffee output. The state has the advantage of cost competitiveness and favourable demographic dividend, which enables it to make products for the entire world. Also, as an IT and start-up capital, many technologies, like blockchain, AI (artificial intelligence), and so on, can play a major role in shaping the future coffee business from farm to cup,” stated Karnataka minister for large- and medium-scale industries Jagadish Shettar.
Jose Dauster Sette, executive director, International Asia, said that in the past three decades, the Asian share of world coffee production had grown from 16% to 32%.
“India is the world’s seventh largest coffee producer and is the fastest-growing consuming market, known for growing both the commercial varieties of coffee – Arabica and Robusta. Furthermore, India has always taken an active role in our organisation and is a founding member of the ICO, since 1963,” he added.
M S Boje Gowda, chairman, Coffee Board of India said that the event was an opportunity to introduce coffee grown in Karnataka to people the world over.
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