Coffee, the favorite beverage of the civilized world, plays a more significant role in India’s trade-dependent agriculture. More than 70 percent (3,08,148 tonnes) of coffee produced in the country was exported in the year 2020. The majority of Indian coffee plantations are in Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. The present study overviews the growth trends in the area, production, productivity, and export of Indian coffee from 1980-81 to 2019-20 by employing CAGR estimates. Indian coffee exhibited an overall growth of 1.98, 2.96, 0.98, 4.42, and 10.37 percent in area, production, productivity, quantity, and value of export, respectively, over the last 40 years. Even with significant positive growth in all the components, the Indian coffee sector is experiencing difficulties due to climatic aberrations, bottlenecks in the export business, including quality issues, and heavy competition from traditional and emerging coffee growers and traders in the international market.

Highlights

• Indian coffee exhibited an overall growth of 1.98, 2.96, and 0.98 percent in area, production, and productivity, respectively, over the last 40 years.
• The three times the higher growth rate in pre-WTO production of coffee in India in comparison with the post-WTO period was due to the introduction of intensive cultivation in coffee plantations and the evident area expansion of Robusta coffee after the 1960s.
• The second decade (1990-91 to 1999-20) could be considered as the golden era for coffee production in India because the growth in coffee production and productivity during this decade reached the all-time high of 8.12 and 5.66 percent.
• The CAGRs of quantity and value of export for the overall period (1980-81 to 2019-20) were 4.42 and 10.37 percent, respectively.