From the scenic slopes of Araku valley on the outskirts of Visakhapatnam to markets in Europe, a success story is brewing. And the people behind it belong to a tribe so far known only for its colourful customs and traditions.

On December 21 last year, the Araku tribals set up a processing plant to produce their brand of organic coffee, 'Araku Emerald'. In less than three months, the brand's unique quality and aroma have won it customers in far away France, Norway and the UK. On Monday, a team from Tradecraft, UK, visited the coffee plantations while US-based coffee roasters Beans and Beans has evinced interest.

"The first export order of 1,000 boxes of organic coffee has been sent to Norway for an IT company. We will slowly build 'Araku Emerald' into an international brand," says Preeti Rao of NGO Naandi Foundation, which trained the tribals of Araku Valley to produce high-quality coffee as part of a sustainable livelihood programme.

Today, the poor tribals, who otherwise produced pulses and occassionally coffee, are making at least Rs 30,000 per acre.

The foundation helped the around 8,000 tribals of the valley organise themselves into the Small and Marginal Farmer Mutually-Aided Cooperative Society, with support from the Green Development Foundation of the Netherlands, and assisted them in setting up a coffee processing plant with machinery imported from the UK.

The Tribal Cooperative set up by the farmers happens to be the only cooperative in the country to have both fair trade and organic trade certification.

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