Chennai: The country’s coffee production was likely to reach above three lakh tonne mark by 2009-2010, a member of the Coffee Board of India said on Friday.

“In 2008-2009, the coffee production stood at 2.62 lakh tonnes while it is expected to reach around 3.06 lakh tonne by 2009-2010”. The country, the sixth largest producer of coffee in the world, exported to 60 countries, Anil Bhandari, member, Coffee Board of India, told reporters here.

“India exports 50,000 tonnes of Coffee to Italy alone which is 25% of the country’s production and around seven to eight per cent were exported to Russia, Germany and Belgium”, he said.

Bhandari was here to officially announce the third edition of “India International Coffee Festival 2009” to be held in Bangalore next month.

Union commerce minister Anand Sharma would inaugurate the three-day event and it was expected to attract more than 500 delegates from 15 countries including coffee growers, brewers, exporters and equipment manufacturers. The conference would focus on global trends and domestic opportunities in the coffee industry, Bhandari said.

About 40 exporters would showcase their products during the festival and some of the countries like Brazil, Germany, Italy, Sweden, USA, England, Costa Rica and Japan would participate in the event, he said.