New Delhi: Distressed coffee growers will get a “strong” relief package from the government to tide over the crisis of a fall in bean prices in the global market.

“We will come up with an appropriate and strong relief package,” commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma told reporters here today.

Sharma said the government has given a lot of support to the plantation sector.

“We are looking very closely what we can do for the coffee plantations,” he said.

Coffee prices have fallen sharply in the international market ahead of the harvest season from October in a number of countries, including India.

“Although average monthly prices in August were higher than in July, the prices of all four groups (of coffee) seem to be on a downward trend as the new crop year approaches in a number of countries,” the International Coffee Organisation (ICO) said in its latest report.

The bean prices fell by 10.44% in August in the international market.

Besides the weather uncertainties, the coffee growers are also facing a debt burden.

Moreover, coffee exports dipped by 19% during January-August this year to about 1.33 lakh tonnes due to high prices of the Indian bean.