At a time when the Union government has kick-started programmes to increase local coffee consumption, coffee estates spread across the South Indian hill ranges have started facing acute labour shortage on the back of emerging alternative job opportunities. With traditional coffee growing states like Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu witnessing a major industrial revolution in the past 10 years, labourers in the coffee sector were lured towards unskilled jobs in rural areas, sources said.
Despite lower local consumption, the area under coffee plantation has been increasing year-on-year on the back of rising demand for Indian coffee in overseas markets. According to Coffee Board sources, the total area under coffee has increased to 3,81,558 hectare in 2006-07 from 92,523 hectares in 1950-51. Particularly in the last 10 years, close to 1 lakh hectare have been added under coffee, while the labour headcount has stagnated or even declined in some pockets.
In Karnataka, which accounts for around 60% of the total coffee plantation area in the country, the labour force has been stagnant at around 4.5 lakh to 4.6 lakh persons for the past several years. The mining industry in Karnataka has emerged as a major alternative employment source for the casual coffee labours in recent times, said Ramesh Raja president, Indian Coffee Exporters Association.