From your perspective, how has the roasting business evolved over the last 20 years?

In my opinion the last 20 years has seen an upward trend in the roasting business. Till such time as coffee marketing was being carried out by the Coffee Board, the established roasters continued to carry out their business, with no new entrants entering the arena of R&G business. No new entrants were interested in this business as they had to compete with the established brands in procuring coffee through the Coffee Board.

Today, with the coffee market being liberalised and coffee being available with greater ease and also since the grower can not only grow coffee, but also function as a curer/trader/exporter and roaster, many new roasting units have been established. These units are operated by small entrepreneurs. Also, the Cafe concept has set in, besides vending units springing up in airports, railway stations, restaurants, offices etc. All this has helped in increasing the R&G business in our country

What are the future prospects for roasters in India?

The future is bright for roasters, but it would be very essential for the cost of roasting equipment, especially the imported equipment, to be available at an affordable price. The affordable price concept could come in, if the duty element on imported roasting and grinding equipment are reduced. While indigenous roasters are available in India, the one problem that we face in India is the lack of Quality Control for such equipment. In most cases, this lacuna is very inadvertent, considering the non availability of the right raw material at the right time, or the lack of certain infrastructure facilities such as uninterrupted electricity supply or technical expertise. We are now trying to overcome these drawbacks with the active support of our principals M/s. Probat Werke of Germany, world leaders in roasting technology. Hopefully, we would be able to get over this problem in the near future, enabling an entrepreneur to purchase quality roasters, for the manufacture of roasted and ground coffee for the domestic market

Probat offer the entire range of roasting equipment from laboratory roasters primarily used for quality control to shop roasters ranging from 5-25 kgs per batch, which are ideally suited for individual entrepreneurs entering the roasting business. As a matter of fact, we have manufactured and sold locally quite a few L25 roasters, which can handle 25 kgs per batch or approximately 100 kilos per hour under technical cooperation of Probat. The next larger range are the 60-120 kilo per batch roasters which are currently being used by the major R&G companies. Finally the large roasters, both batch and continuous type are in use by all the multinational companies in the domestic market

Taking note of this, M/s Probat have so designed their machines that they can operate effectively with the available gas in our country, without a drop in the efficiency of output. Added, many of our roasters in India prefer the cooling of roasted coffee beans by air rather than through water quenching. Accordingly, the Probat machines have been designed. Today, the Indian market requires small sized roasters at affordable prices. M/s Probat Werke are working to see how best this requirement could be met.

The concept behind the Probat Day is to update the Indian coffee market comprising growers/curers/traders/exporters/roasters and consumers on the developments in the field of coffee roasters, grinders and lab equipment, which are manufactured the world over, with special reference to Probat equipment.

It is a day when we are able to bring the entire Indian coffee industry under one roof, enabling interaction between the individual players in the coffee industry and the people behind Probat machines. We are also able to understand market requirements and accordingly design our future strategies to cater to the Indian coffee industry. The Probat Day is held once in two years and has been a great success each time it is held, considering that on this day not only do the people behind Probat equipment come down from Germany to participate with the Indian coffee industry, interacting with them and providing the latest information on coffee roasters and grinders, but also help in educating the players in the Indian coffee industry on the art of roasting and grinding. We have had workshops on coffee roasting and cupping, besides conducting presentations by coffee consumers, roasters, chicory manufacturers, college students and even chefs of leading hotels. Mrs. Sunalini N. Menon of Coffeelab, Bangalore and her team have played a pivotal role in coordinating this bi-annual event. The next Probat Day in India would perhaps be in end 2003. At present, the plans are at the drawing board stage and we are working on the same.