The production and the area under production has marginally improved in 1997-98 compared to 1996-97. Area under coffee is 82878 hectares, up from 82556 hectares in the previous year. The production is 22 per cent of the the country's production in 1997-98 with 50,625 tonnes up from 48,240 tonnes in the previous year.

According to the Coffee Board there are only two major exporters in Kerala, one in Kochi and one in Thiruvananthapuram. There are only three coffee curing units in the state and the installed capacity of 15,180 tonnes insufficient even to cater to the present level of production.

Most of the growers use sub-standard hullers leading to low quality of coffee.

The basic infrastructure of post harvest processes is largely lacking in the state with not even an auction centre in the state which has a major portat Kochi. Thus the commodity finds no takers in the state.

The Coffee Board, in the Ninth Plan report, has decided to start a market intelligence unit for disseminating market information which will provide the growers with the prices prevailing in the market.

The board has also planned to increase the domestic base for coffee by developing private auctions. At the end of Ninth Plan the production target is three lakh tonnes and the export target is two lakh tonnes. The board also plans to increase the consumption to one lakh tonnes.

Coffee production has increased from 56,000 tonnes in 1977-78 to 1.79 lakh tonnes in 1997-98. In the last five years average production rose by 1.8 lakh tonnes to 2.3 lakh tonnes and has become number three among world coffee producers.

The draft report by a task force on the plantation crops of Kerala had found growers confront post harvest problems because of lack of understanding of the technology of quality processing and basis for value-addition.

The intermediariesalso extract a huge margin at expense of ignorant growers because there is no institutional support in primary marketing.

Kerala growers do not have a regular organised channel for primary marketing of coffee and are dependent exclusively on private dealers operating at different levels. Karnataka has two private auction centres besides the growing presence of Coffee Marketing Cooperative Ltd (Comark). Comark has procurement operations in Kerala too though its share is very marginal.

cooperative. The task force has suggested that Comark and Coffee Board should have an active presence in the processing, primary marketing and value-addition and marketing societies.

Involvement of Coffee Board in the form of share capital participation can ensure transfer of relevant post harvest technology and resultant quality upgradation while the association on Comark will ensure maximum value-addition and higher levels of farmgate price.