Kodagu (Coorg)
A hill district in Karnataka where coffee grows beneath shade trees, with a history of local planting, colonial estates, decline and recovery.
Kodagu, also called Coorg, is a district of Karnataka long associated with coffee. The region is widely associated with coffee grown in mixed gardens, under shade trees alongside crops such as pepper, oranges, vanilla, cardamom and arecanut. “Coorg Arabica” is among the Indian coffees reported in March 2019 to have been granted a Geographical Indication tag. One source reports that Robusta covers more of the district’s coffee area than Arabica, in figures for 2006–07.
Oral tradition holds that Muslim settlers, granted land near Nalknad under the Coorg Rajas, first introduced the shrub from seed; this is not corroborated in the sources consulted. The first European planting is dated by one source to 1854, with the Mercara estate, followed by further estates in the mid-1850s. Coffee gardens also became common in local households.
The story is not a straight line. Disease and pests from around 1870 ruined many plantations, and the same source records the area under coffee falling from 84,820 acres in 1896 to 39,762 acres in 1936, with the outbreak of war in 1939 cutting off foreign markets. The Coffee Board, set up under legislation in 1942, grew out of the crisis of the 1930s. By 1952 the area stood at 49,900 acres.
Kodagu’s share of Indian coffee output is reported in different ways across the sources, and no figure is given here. The main narrative source also contains data errors, which is why this page uses few numbers.
- Region
- Kodagu (Coorg) district, Karnataka
- Crops
- Robusta and Arabica
- Landscape
- Coffee grown with shade trees and other crops
- First European estates
- 1854 onwards, by one source
- Designation
- Coorg Arabica, reported as GI-tagged in 2019
Editor’s Selection is an editorial choice by Sunjae Sharmah. Names and marks belong to their owners; no affiliation with, or endorsement by, the brand is implied.
Added October 2026