The Girijan Co-operative Corporation (GCC), Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, has been granted organic certification for its renowned Araku coffee and black pepper crops by the Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).
Organic certification
- The certification covers an extensive cultivation area spanning 21,104 acres, with coffee and pepper being grown by 1,300 farmers in the Gondipakalu, Lammasingi, Kappalu, GK Veedhi, Pedavalasa, and Erracheruvulu clusters in the Chintapalli division and GK Veedhi Mandal, respectively.
- The process of obtaining this certification involved various challenging tasks, including third-party verification, online registration, geo-tagging of farms, and updating all relevant details in the APEDA portal.
- With its exquisite taste and sustainable production methods, Araku Coffee is poised to make a mark in the global coffee market and establish itself as a premium and sought-after product for coffee enthusiasts worldwide.
About Araku Coffee
- Taking its name from Araku Valley, a lush green valley deep in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, the Araku Coffee is cultivated in the valley’s protected ecosystem which offers the ideal growing conditions for coffee.
- The weather of the Araku Valley – with its hot days and cold nights along with the iron-rich soil allows the coffee to ripen slowly giving it its aromatic richness and taste.
- Araku Valley Arabica can be described as coffee from the Hilly tracks of Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha region at an elevation of 900‐1100 Mt Mean Sea Level.
- The major type of Coffee grown in the state of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha is Arabica Coffee. Coffea Arabica is a species of Coffee originally indigenous to the forests of the southwestern highlands of Ethiopia.
- The area around Vishakapatnam district in Andhra Pradesh and Koraput district in Orissa is recognized to have the basic physical and climatic conditions that are required for coffee cultivation.
- The average rainfall is 1250 to 1500 mm, with relative humidity between 68 to 92 percent.
- Soils are sandy clay loams with optimum pH levels of 6.0 to 6.5. The terrain in the region is medium to steep slopes.
- The coffee soils in Araku Valley belong to the red lateritic soil groups.
- The coffees of Araku region are light to medium body, pleasant acidity with citrus note of grape fruit with mild Jaggery sweetness.
