The Coffee Board is a Statutory Organization with autonomous nature established through a constitutional act of the Indian Parliament “Coffee Act 1942” under the administrative control of the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India. The Coffee Board serves, in simple terms, as the friend, philosopher and guide to the Coffee sector in India, covering the entire coffee value chain. The core activities are primarily directed towards Research & Development, Transfer of Technology, Quality Improvement, Extending Development Support to Coffee growing sector, Exports, Market Intelligence, promotion of Indian coffees in international and domestic markets etc. The Coffee Board is headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka

The activities of the Coffee Board are broadly aimed at:
(i) Enhancement of production, productivity & quality
(ii) Export promotion for achieving higher value returns for Indian Coffee and
(iii) Supporting development of Domestic market.

The Research Department of the Coffee Board with its headquarters at the Central Coffee Research Institute (CCRI), Chikkamagaluru and five regional stations are involved in development of improved varieties with tolerance to major pests and diseases and standardization of technology for improving production, productivity and quality.

The Extension wing of the Coffee Board is a vast network of extension units located in all the major coffee growing zones. The extension personnel are involved in dissemination of latest technologies to the growers, organizing capacity building programs to the growers and farm workers, implementation of various development support, risk insurance and labour welfare schemes of the Coffee Board and other activities like crop estimation, crop losses etc.

The Coffee Board has a Market Intelligence Unit functioning from its head office at Bangalore. The unit undertakes various activities related to market information & intelligence, market research studies, crop forecasting and coffee economics aspects. The unit also undertakes studies on research related to the coffee trade including WTO issues.

In India, coffees are grown in 13 different regions across the country. Coffee is traditionally grown in the Western Ghats spread over Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Coffee cultivation is also being expanding rapidly in the Non-Traditional Areas of AP and Odisha as well as in the North East states. Coffee is predominantly an export-oriented commodity and 65% to 70% of coffee produced in the country is exported while the rest is consumed within the country.

Indian coffee has created a niche for itself in the international market and the Indian Coffees are earning high premium, particularly Indian Robusta which is highly preferred for its good blending quality. Arabica Coffee from India is also well received in the international market. India also has 3 specialty coffees viz. Monsooned Malabar, Mysore Nuggets Extra Bold and Robusta Kaapi Royale. Coffees from regions viz. Coorg, Chikmagalur, Bababudangiri, Wayanad, Araku Valley and one specialty coffee i.e. Monsooned Malabar have received the prestigious Geographical Indication (GI) registration.

The uniqueness of Indian Coffees is being completely grown under natural forest shade and are also wholly hand-picked and sundried after farm processing. The two main varieties of coffee viz., Arabica and Robusta are grown in India. Indian Arabicas are considered one of the best in the world. On the other hand, Indian Robustas are entirely shade grown. This helps Indian Robusta Coffees to attain slow maturity and higher bean filling, ensuring the best taste and quality, in contrast to robustas from other parts of the globe where it is grown in open field conditions.