GCC Chairman Kidari Sravan Kumar (front) with the Corporation’s Directors at the counter of the Araku Valley coffee café under construction on Beach Road in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit: K.R. Deepak
Andhra Pradesh Girijan Cooperative Corporation (GCC) Chairman Kidari Sravan Kumar on Tuesday (September 29, 2026) said the Araku Valley Coffee café and experience centre coming up on Beach Road in Visakhapatnam would be opened soon.
Inspecting the progress of works along with the Corporation’s Directors, Mr. Sravan Kumar directed officials to complete them swiftly and without compromising on quality standards. “I think it may take approximately one month or so to open this,” he said.
Being built at an estimated cost of ₹1.06 crore, the two-storey facility stands on land obtained from the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation. Its main aim, he said, was to let tourists and residents visiting Beach Road taste Araku Valley coffee and to make available the range of tribal products marketed through the GCC.
The ground floor will have a coffee-making unit and a café-style outlet, where Araku Valley coffee and other GCC products will be on sale. The first floor will house the Araku Coffee Experience Centre, which Mr. Sravan Kumar described as “not available anywhere else in Andhra Pradesh”.
GCC Chairman Kidari Sravan Kumar speaks to the media in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit:
K.R. Deepak
Displays will take visitors through the journey of the crop from farm to cup: how tribal farmers cultivate coffee, how the berries are harvested, how the yield is obtained and how the harvested produce is processed. The centre will also convey the labour that goes into the crop and the marketing opportunities open to the farmers’ produce, he said.
Mr. Sravan Kumar credited the State government’s support for the initiative, naming Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, Deputy Chief Minister K. Pawan Kalyan, IT Minister Nara Lokesh and Tribal Welfare Minister G. Sandhya Rani. Recalling how Araku Coffee had already been promoted across the world, he said: “Our motto is that Araku Coffee should be available in every corner of the world.”
“Through this, we are helping the tribal farmers and promoting Araku Coffee nationally,” he said. The GCC, he added, was taking steps to popularise Araku Valley coffee and to provide better marketing facilities for products made by tribal farmers.
On staffing, he said the Corporation would follow a different approach. “We will go for a tender-type process. We will invite people to participate in the tender so that we can work together in a PPP format,” he said, referring to a public-private partnership.
Published – September 30, 2026 09:34 am IST
