Naidu happy over Araku Coffee’s second cafe in Paris

Vijayawada: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is delighted over Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra’s announcement that a second cafe, serving Andhra Prades’s world-famous Araku coffee, will be opening shortly in Paris.

“Another cafe in Paris – that’s great news! Delighted that the Araku coffee continues to brew the global recognition it deserves,” CM Naidu posted on ‘X’ while reacting to Anand Mahindra’s earlier post.

“Naandi Foundation’s Arakunomics and the Girijan Cooperative Corporation turned a vision into a reality, transforming the lives of our tribal sisters and brothers. I look forward to more such success stories emerging from Andhra Pradesh in the future,” the Chief Minister wrote.

Anand Mahindra, who is chairman of the Board of Naandi Foundation, earlier announced that they will shortly open a second cafe in Paris near the Pantheon.

He thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who mentioned Araku coffee, in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme on June 30.

The industrialist wrote that tribal farmers grow coffee in the Araku Valley using regenerative agricultural practices. It is now a globally renowned brand and acknowledged as one of the world’s finest coffees, he said.

The business tycoon stated that as Board Chairman, he was keenly aware of the 25-year journey undertaken by the Naandi Foundation at the behest of Chandrababu Naidu, who had persisted with the late Dr Reddy (Dr K. Anji Reddy) to start Naandi and transform the lives of tribal farmers by encouraging them to grow high-quality coffee.

Anand Mahindra was all praise for Naandi Foundation CEO Manoj Kumar, saying they were enthused by his and his team’s vision to make the coffee a global brand. He recalled that the first outlet was opened in the Marais district in Paris.

“Today, lines stretch outside the store of Parisians waiting to get their daily cuppa of Araku. And I’m delighted to announce that we’ll shortly be opening the second Cafe in Paris near the Pantheon. In addition, of course, we have outlets in Bengaluru & Mumbai,” wrote Mahindra.

“As the PM said, so far over 300,000 tribals are out of poverty and over 42,000 farmer families have become Lakhpatis - earning Rs 1,00,000 profit per season from coffee. The best story is the fact that these tribal families also planted 45 million trees so far & this monsoon another 6 million more will be planted. This is the true ‘Return on Equity’ from building a Global Social Enterprise brand out of India,” he added. (IANS)