VG Siddhartha made youngsters fall in love with coffee

Mysuru: It was a sad day for Kodagu which contributes 70 percent of coffee production in the entire country with planters mourning the sad demise of Café Coffee Day owner, V.G. Siddhartha and recalling his pioneering efforts in popularising coffee and expanding coffee markets  thereby largely benefiting Kodagu.  Mr K.K. Vishwanath from Kodagu who is the organising secretary of Karnataka coffee growers federation said that being from a coffee growers’ family, he had big dreams.  India produces 3 lakh tons of coffee (which is 3 and a half percent of the world’s share) and 2.25 tons is produced in Karnataka while 50 percent of the state’s production is in Kodagu alone.

Earlier, the coffee board used to manage  coffee trade but things changed after Mr Siddhartha pioneered the concept of Café Coffee Day, and created a brand image to popularise coffee in 1996 at a time when India was opened for free trade of coffee. He set a coffee benchmark through CCD, and the rates at other coffee units were fixed based on CCD rates every morning around 10 am. Siddhartha never allowed the rates to drop and in this way, his contribution to Kodagu, popularly known as Coffee Land was huge, he said.

Another coffee planter from Kodagu, Mr Chidvilas said that a time when most of the local coffee production was exported and coffee was popular only in Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, it was Siddhartha who popularised the drink across the country. He pioneered the  love for coffee among youngsters through the unqiue CCD concept. Coffee growers of Kodagu preferred to sell their coffee to Siddhartha’s Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company, as they inevitably paid good rates. The bond which Kodagu had with Siddhartha was one of trust and loyalty, he added.