India

Why this origin matters

India is one of the world's larger coffee producers and is unusual among them in three ways. It is mostly a robusta origin, with robusta making up more than 70 per cent of the crop. It is also a processing hub: India imports green coffee equivalent to about a fifth of its own crop, largely to turn into soluble coffee for re-export, and soluble coffee makes up a large share of what it sells abroad. And its home market is served largely by soluble coffee, in a country where the average person still drinks very little coffee: the attaché's 2025 report put it at 0.07 kilograms a year and its 2026 report at 0.04, against a world average of about 1.3.

Where coffee grows

The three southern states of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu hold about three quarters of the planted area: 77 per cent in the attaché's 2025 report and 76 in 2026. The districts whose rainfall the crop forecasts track are Chikmagalur, Kodagu and Hassan in Karnataka and Wayanad, Travancore and the Nelliampathies in Kerala. Coffee has been extended in a small way into Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and the north-east, where yields are lower. Many estates sit beside protected forest reserves, which leaves little room to expand.

The crop depends on the timing of rain around the monsoon. A dry spell stresses the plants into flowering, and the showers of February and March then decide how much fruit sets; heavy rain or cool weather at the wrong moment prevents flowering or knocks flowers and young fruit off. In early 2025 the main coffee districts had almost no winter rain, followed by far more than normal before the monsoon. The attaché's 2026 report adds, in one general paragraph, that arabica is primarily grown between 700 and 1,200 metres above sea level and robusta lower down, and that coffee is typically grown under a two-tier canopy of shade trees and often intercropped with pepper, cardamom, vanilla, orange and banana.

Species and varieties

Both species, with robusta dominant and gaining. Growers have been shifting from arabica to robusta because arabica is more sensitive to rising temperatures and is attacked by white stem borer and leaf rust. The difference in yield is large: about 1,280 kilograms per hectare for robusta against under 400 for arabica in the latest forecast.

Harvest

Arabica is picked from November to January and robusta from December to February. Arabica follows a two-year cycle of heavier and lighter crops.

How the coffee is processed

The attaché's price charts are for arabica parchment and robusta cherry. Its 2026 report explains the terms: arabica can be processed by the natural method, called cherry, or the washed method, called parchment, and is dried on patios, on raised tables or, on larger estates, in mechanical dryers. The trade's handbook gives the same two names. Neither report gives a share for either method. Monsooned coffee is not described in either report. The International Coffee Organization's quality resolution names Indian monsooned coffee as its example of a speciality coffee that traditionally has a high moisture content, and exempts such coffees from its moisture ceiling; how the coffee is made is not in any document read for this page.

How it is graded and sold

Roughly two fifths of what India exports is soluble coffee, not green beans. Italy is the largest buyer, followed in the 2026 report by Germany, Russia, Belgium and the United Arab Emirates. Imported green coffee, about 95 per cent of all imports, comes mainly from Indonesia, Vietnam, Kenya and Uganda, with Brazil added in the 2026 report, and is intended for processing and re-export. All stocks are held privately by growers and traders.

What it tends to taste like

No description of taste is given here. The attaché's report says only that robusta, for its higher caffeine content and resilience, is commonly used in commercial blends and instant coffee.

Preparation traditions

How coffee is traditionally prepared and served in this country, in CoffeeHQ's international preparation atlas.

• South Indian filter coffee
• Kerala kattan kaapi

Pressures on the sector

• Weather. Both arabica and robusta yields were forecast below their three-year and five-year averages for 2025/26 after a dry winter and excessive pre-monsoon rain.
• White stem borer and leaf rust on arabica, which are pushing growers towards robusta.
• Little room to expand, because estates border protected forest.

Institutions worth knowing

• Coffee Board of India