Coffee was introduced to Araku in the early 1900’s from neighbouring Pamuleru Valley, and in 2007, Small and Marginal Tribal Farmers Mutually Aided Cooperative Society (SAMTFMACS), a coffee farmer cooperative formed with assistance from The Naandi Foundation, was formed to push the coffee production there even further. It operates across seven mandals in the area – Araku, Hukumpeta, Dumbriguda, Anathagiri, Paderu, Pedhabaylu and Munchinpet – covering 13,560 of land used for growing coffee. Araku farmers have decentralised small and scattered plots averaging 1-2 acres per family, and are subsistence farmers, balancing cash crops such as pepper, turmeric, and ginger with coffee production. There are 1125 farmers that contribute to this lot.
A state-of-the-art Coffee Processing Unit was set up in Araku, fully equipped with latest machinery such as coffee pulpers. Naandi in association with Araku Originals Private Limited (AOPL), a connected for-profit social enterprise, is also the first in the country to receive global accreditation as a Speciality Coffee Association (SCA) Premier Training Campus offering courses on green coffee, barista skills, brewing, and roasting, along with authorized SCA trainers.
This coffee comes from 321 producers within the Paderu Mandal.
Cherries are collected and brought to a centralised coffee processing unit that accepts the beans only within 10 hours of harvesting. It goes thorough an initial 18-21 hour fermentation before being washed and dried using a number of raised beds. It then rests for 180 days in parchment before being hulled and bagged for shipment. Any coffee on the raised beds overnight is covered with a light cotton cloth to protect from moisture in the air.
