Mysuru: CFTRI shares best practices on Coffee quality and value addition
CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute (CSIR-CFTRI), Mysuru, in association with the 7 Beans Group, Sakleshpur, organised a one-day Awareness and Training Programme on Coffee Quality
CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute (CSIR-CFTRI), Mysuru, in association with the 7 Beans Group, Sakleshpur, organised a one-day Awareness and Training Programme on Coffee Quality Evaluation and Value Addition to create awareness among coffee growers, entrepreneurs and stakeholders on improving coffee quality, value addition and market competitiveness. Giridhar Parvatam, Director, CSIR-CFTRI, in his inaugural remarks, expressed happiness over the programme and appreciated the collaborative efforts of CSIR-CFTRI and the 7 Beans Group in strengthening the coffee sector. He highlighted the growing importance of value addition in agricultural produce, emphasising that coffee quality evaluation and value addition have become crucial in the present-day scenario for enhancing farmers’ income, improving product quality and meeting consumer expectations.
Pradeep K. N., president, 7 Beans Group elaborated on the importance of adopting good agricultural and post-harvest practices to produce premium-quality coffee and diversify into value-added coffee products. Stressing the significance of consumer preferences, he noted that consumer acceptance ultimately determines the success and sustainability of coffee growers and entrepreneurs. Dharmaraj H. S., Chairman, 7 Beans Group discussed the various challenges associated with coffee cultivation and highlighted the need for adopting appropriate cultivation and crop management practices. Drawing from his own experiences in natural farming, he encouraged coffee growers to integrate traditional knowledge with modern scientific cultivation methods to improve productivity, sustainability and profitability. Addressing the participants, A. A. Inamdar, Scientist G and Head, Technology Transfer and Business Development Department, CSIR-CFTRI, introduced the diverse technologies developed by CSIR-CFTRI and explained the technology transfer and commercialisation services offered by the institute.
He encouraged participants to leverage CSIR-CFTRI’s expertise for developing innovative value-added products and commercial ventures. The inaugural session was followed by a series of technical lectures covering coffee cultivation, agronomy, value addition, quality assessment, business opportunities and detection of coffee adulteration. The sessions were delivered by Dharmaraj H. S., Nanishankar H. V., Sudheer Kumar Y., Pavan Kumar P. and Pushpa S. Murthy, who shared their expertise on various aspects of coffee. As part of the programme, participants visited several state-of-the-art facilities at CSIR-CFTRI, including the CFTRI Showcase, Pilot Plant, PMFME Coffee Processing Centre, Electronic Nose (E-Nose) and Electronic Tongue (E-Tongue) demonstration facilities, and the BIRAC BioNEST Incubation Centre, where they got first-hand exposure to advanced technologies and infrastructure supporting food processing and entrepreneurship.