Heart of India's COFFEE COUNTRY

Given its salubrious year-round climate, neat and orderly coffee plantations and scenic country vistas, Coorg has emerged as a high-potential tourism destination

Set under the thinning canopy of the Western Ghats in the south-west of Karnataka (pop. 63 million), Coorg is the heart of India's coffee country. During high season (April-June), the entire district is enveloped in aroma of the roasted bean, the world's most heavily traded commodity after crude oil. With its panoramic vistas, green valleys, thick forest cover, rolling hills and dales, Coorg is known as the Scotland of India for its wet and windy climate. Though one of Karnataka's 31 districts, Coorg (pop. 596,718) covers a land area of 4,102 sq. km-four times larger than Hong Kong and seven times the area of Singapore, most of it under tree cover because unlike tea plants, the coffee bush requires shade.

In a global agri-industry dominated by Brazil which produces 40 percent (3.5 million tonnes) of the world's coffee output annually (cf. India's 349,000 tonnes), India is acknowledged as the producer of finest mild coffees. With their tropical climate, high altitude (3,500 ft), abundant rainfall and fertile soil, Coorg and the neighboring Chikkmagaluru districts in Karnataka have consistently produced and exported high quality coffee for over 150 years. The coffee output of these two districts accounts for 70 percent of the total coffee produced in the country.

In particular Coorg coffee is valued for its blue colour, clean beans and fine liquoring qualities and is in high demand in international markets (nearly 80 percent of the district's coffee production is exported). The numerous coffee estates here are globally renowned for their arabica and robusta coffee beans which are blended to suit national and individual palates.