THE COFFEE ACT OF 1942

In the 17th century, a Sufi saint named Baba Budan, smuggled 7 coffee beans from the port of Mocha, Yemen and brought them to India, where he planted them along the slopes of the slopes of the Chandragiri Hills in Chikmagalur district in Karnataka.

Until then, coffee was exported to other parts of the world in a roasted or baked form so that no one else could grow their own and were forced to buy coffee from the Yemenis.

Later, the Dutch spread coffee cultivation with the British eventually making coffee a big commercial success by the mid-nineteen century. However, after the 1st World War, the Indian coffee economy fell into a deplorable state.

The British enacted the Coffee Act of 1942 and established a coffee board by the name of the ‘Indian Coffee Market Expansion Board’ as per Section 4 of the Indian Coffee Market Expansion Board Ordinance, 1940. Its main objective was to help promote research and education endeavours which could result in improving the quality and presence of Indian coffee.

Currently, the Indian Coffee Board falls under the purview of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Several efforts are being undertaken to bring it under the Agriculture Ministry so that the several benefits of the agriculture sector can also be extended to coffee growers.