India is all set to overtake Columbia in domestic coffee consumption, with the Union government promoting domestic coffee consumption for the welfare of small coffee farmers, and will take the fifth place.
Columbia?s domestic consumption has been stagnant at 1.4 million bags since 2002, while its production increased to 12.2 million bags in 2006 from 11.19 million bags, according to International Coffee Organisation (ICO).
India has been constantly increasing its domestic coffee consumption from 1.08 million bags in 2002 to 1.14 million bags in 2003, 1.18 million bags in 2004, 1.27 million bags in 2005 and 1.33 million bags in 2006 while its production also increased to 4.75 million bags in 2006 from 4.50 million bags in 2003.
In domestic consumption among the coffee countries, India is ranked sixth after Brazil, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Mexico and Colombia. Barring Brazil, other countries ahead of India have not much bothered about increasing their domestic consumption in recent years, a Coffee Board official said.
Despite its higher production, Indonesia?s domestic consumption hovered around two million bags for the past four years while Ethiopia?s consumption stagnated at 1.83 million bags since 2002 and consumption in Mexico also was flat at 1.5 million bags for the past five years.
The Coffee Board has kick-started active campaign to increase the domestic coffee consumption after receiving a feedback from Brazilian coffee marketing expert Carlos Brando, sources said.
The Board has set a target to surpass the domestic consumption levels in Colombia, Mexico, Ethiopia and Indonesia in the next two years.
