Introduction

In Indian coffee growing started with an Indian Muslim saint Baba Budan, who while returning

from a pilgrimage to Mecca, smuggled seven coffee beans to Mysore in India. He planted

them on the Chandragiri Hills in Chikkamagaluru district, in Karnataka.

Coffee production in India is dominated in the hill tracts of South Indian states, with Karnataka

accounting for 71%, followed by Kerala with 21% and Tamil Nadu 5% of overall production.

Indian coffee is said to be the finest coffee grown in the shade rather than direct sunlight.

There are about 250,000 coffee growers in the country, with 98% of them are small growers.

As of May 2019, India is the 7th largest coffee producer in the world producing over 348,000

metric tons of coffee. Almost 80% of Indian coffee is exported, out of which 70% is bound for

Germany, Russia, Spain, Belgium, Slovenia, United States, Japan, Greece, Netherlands and

France. Most of the shipping happens through the Suez Canal.

The Coffee Board of India is an organization set up by an act of parliament in 1942 and

managed by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of the government of India to promote

coffee production in India. Until 1995 the Coffee Board marketed the coffee of many growers

from a pooled supply, but after that time coffee marketing became a private-sector activity

due to the economic liberalization in India.

There are two main types of green coffee beans produced in India:

 Coffea arabica: Plantations are generally at altitudes over 1000 meters, and it is

referred to as highland coffee. The average length of coffee beans of this variety is

around 9 mm. Their colour is greenish to blue green. The coffee beans have a strong,

full flavour. Arabica beans have a caffeine content of approximately 1.2%.

  Coffea robusta: Robusta coffee can be considered a lowland coffee, with plantations

below 1000 meters. Robusta beans are small, round and generally brownish to yellowy

green. Their beans have a higher water content than Arabica coffee. They generally

have a less powerful flavour. Robusta beans have a caffeine content of approximately

2.3%.

During the time from January 2019 to August 2019 India has exported over 38,520 metric tons

of Coffea arabica and 145,370 metric tons of Coffea robusta.

We have selected Netherlands as our location for export due to the fact that, The

Netherlands, with over 17 million inhabitants, accounted for approximately 4% of total

European Union consumption of green coffee. The Netherlands’ per capita coffee

consumption is close to the European average of 5.41 kg per year.

Adding to this, Netherlands is the sixth largest importer of green coffee beans in Europe, with

a share of 6%. Its total imports reached 190 thousand tons in 2017. Imports between 2013

and 2017 increased at a high annual average rate of 26%, which is much higher than the

average increase in Europe of +1% annually.

Moreover, Netherlands is an important trade hub in Europe that re-exports many different

products, including significant amounts of coffee. In 2017, the Netherlands was the fourth

largest re-exporter of green coffee beans in Europe. The main destinations for the

Netherlands’ green coffee re-exports were Germany and Italy which are countries with very

high demand for coffee.