Araku Originals

Araku Originals is a for-profit farmers’ cooperative for the Adivasi tribal farmers to bring quality products to market, while building a fair income in the hands of the farmers. Having grown to over 11,000 farmer-households (over 55,000 people reached so far), it is still just starting to scale, and can cross over 100,000 households. Araku Originals leapfrogs traditional approaches to increase farmer income. If it were simply providing market-access, that in itself would provide better income to farmers. If it were simply providing capacity building to improve quality, that in itself would increase the quantity of a farm’s output. If it were simply eliminating the middle-man traders, that in itself would increase pricing for farmers. Araku Originals goes farther to build a high-quality brand. It demonstrates that tribal farmers, with an attention to detail and quality, can produce some of the best coffees in the world. It is not satisfied with quantity or pricing or volumes alone. These farmers are now delivering coffee that rivals some of the best coffees from South America and Africa, winning praise at local and international levels. That brand value accrues to the cooperative, and so to the farmers themselves.