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Coffee Cultivation in India

Legend says Indian coffee began with seven beans smuggled in a beard. This article covers how that story grew into a billion-dollar export industry.

Seven Beans to a Billion Dollars

IndEco0095

17th CENTURY

Baba Budan’s Beans

Seven beans smuggled from Yemen, planted in Chikmagalur

1942

Coffee Board Formed

Set up by the Coffee Act, to stabilise a struggling industry

71% SHARE

Karnataka Leads

Grows most of India’s coffee, ahead of Kerala and Tamil Nadu

$1.8 BILLION

Record Exports

FY2024-25 exports, up about 40% year on year

The twist: most of India’s coffee grows in the shade, under a forest canopy, not open sun.

📑 Contents

Legend credits Baba Budan, a 17th-century Sufi saint, with smuggling seven coffee beans from Yemen and planting them in the Chikmagalur hills of Karnataka.
In 1942, the government set up the Coffee Board of India through the Coffee Act, to stabilise an industry hit hard by falling prices and disease.
Today, Karnataka grows about 71% of India’s coffee, ahead of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
India’s coffee exports hit a record $1.8 billion in FY2024-25, up roughly 40% from the year before.

India is the world’s seventh-largest coffee producer.
India grows two main varieties: Robusta, which dominates output, and Arabica, grown in smaller quantities at higher altitudes.
Most Indian coffee is shade-grown, cultivated under a forest canopy rather than in open sun.
The main coffee belt runs through the Western Ghats, across Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu.
The Coffee Board of India functions under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Shade-grown cultivation supports biodiversity, letting coffee coexist with existing tree cover instead of replacing it.
India’s coffee is largely exported unroasted as raw beans, though roasted and instant coffee exports are growing.
Major export destinations include Italy, Germany, Belgium, Russia, and Turkey.

A 17th-century smuggling legend and a 21st-century billion-dollar export industry share the same origin point. Few crops in India trace such a direct, unbroken line from myth to modern trade data.
The Coffee Board’s 1942 founding, during wartime price collapse, shows how commodity boards often emerge from crisis. They exist to stabilise volatile markets, not just to promote an industry.
Shade-grown cultivation makes Indian coffee unusual globally. Most major producers, like Brazil and Vietnam, favour full-sun plantations for higher yields, trading biodiversity for volume.
Karnataka’s dominant 71% share concentrates both opportunity and risk. A single state’s weather or pest problem can meaningfully move India’s total coffee output.