Speaking on the occasion, Shri Jairam Ramesh said, “Naandi played a crucial role by acquiring Fair Trade and Organic Certification for Araku Coffee. This certified organic coffee which was exported to international markets fetched additional income of more than Rs 60 per kg. Like organic coffee, I request Naandi to take up production of organic pepper across all the 11 mandals in Paderu region.”

He also expressed interest in seeking Geographical Indication (GI) status to Anantagiri Coffee, so as to enhance the market value and assure premium price in overseas markets. As per the memorandum of understanding, while the Tribal Welfare Department will provide working capital as soft loan towards coffee procurement to small and marginal farmers, ITDA will provide coffee saplings and implements such as pruners, baby pulpers to farmers and also monitor the entire programme on a monthly basis. Naandi, on its part, will facilitate Fair Trade and Organic certification for coffee, process coffee and establish market linkages – both national and international.

Importantly, Naandi will ensure higher returns for coffee farmers by complying with specific processing and bean-drying methods. It is in this context that a state-of-the-art Central Coffee Processing Unit (CPU) was set up in December 2007, at Thuraiguda village, Visakhapatnam district, which was inaugurated by Jairam Ramesh, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, in December, 2007 Redya Naik, Minister for Tribal Welfare, GoAP, Sri D Kadmiel, IAS, Director of Tribal Welfare Department and A Sharath, MBA, Project Officer, ITDA, Paderu were also present on the occasion.

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About Naandi’s Araku Organic Coffee project:

The Araku Organic Coffee project is part of Naandi’s Sustainable Livelihood initiatives that aims at economic, environmental and social sustainability.

The programme has successfully converted semi-wasteland into environmental-friendly coffee plantations. Importantly, marginalized farmers are given inputs to grow other fruit crops including banana and pepper, which will act as secondary income sources. Naandi, in a mode of expansion, has introduced the organic farming initiative for small farmers in two very eco fragile areas of the country - Nagaland and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

About Naandi:

Naandi Foundation is the new generation social sector organization led by corporate heads such as Dr K Anji Reddy, B Ramalinga Raju, Anand Mahindra, G M Rao, Dr Isher Judge Ahluwalia and Padma Bhusan Chiranjeevi. With interventions such as Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation, Child Rights and Sustainable Livelihoods underway across seven states in the country, Naandi is one of the largest national players in the development sector working with national, international, corporate and civil society organizations to serve and empower underserved communities in urban, rural and tribal areas.