Moolakara has cured Wayanad coffee since 1976. Today we ship Fairtrade-certified Robusta, single-origin pepper, ginger and turmeric to Volcafe Italia, G. Bijdendijk and Cofi-Com — picked by name, cured at Cherukattoor, shipped in sealed green lots.
From an unassuming curing mill on the road to Mananthavady, to a Fairtrade-certified exporter on first-name terms with Volcafe and Bijdendijk — four chapters, fifty years.
Mr. M.C. Thomas commissions a coffee-curing mill at Cherukattoor — the first machine to serve growers along the Mananthavady road.
Three decades of curing-relationships with Wayanad and Coorg farmers. Supplied beans for Nestle, ITC, Allana & Sons, Vidya Coffee, NKG Jayanti.
The grower-members organise as the Wayanad Agricultural Society. Both the society (FLO 38805) and the company (FLO 38806) earn Fairtrade certification.
Re-incorporated under Companies Act 2013 (CIN U15549KL2017PTC051552). Direct exports begin to Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy & Australia.
Every kilo on this manifest is sourced inside a 40-km radius of the Cherukattoor mill — from named co-operative gardens in Mananthavady, Panamaram, Pulpally and Sulthan Bathery.
HSN 0901Curing-line bean, hand-picked November to February. Sun-dried on raised parchment beds, hulled and graded on the Spectrum line, cup-tested in monsoon and post-monsoon parcels.
HSN 0904Wayanad-grown Piper nigrum, vine-ripened on the shade-trees inside the coffee estate. De-stoned and double-sieved. Two grades: Garbled (MG1) and Tellicherry-extra (TGEB).
HSN 0910Rain-fed Zingiber officinale, lifted in November–December and slow-dried in open yards — never sulphur-bleached. Volatile-oil yield consistently above 1.8% across recent lots.
HSN 0910Locally selected high-curcumin lines, traditionally boiled and sun-cured on the farm. Polished or un-polished finger grade. Curcumin in recent lots: 2.6%–3.1% on lab certificate.
Moolakara is one of the small handful of Wayanad-based curing houses certified under the Fairtrade system. Both the company (FLO 38806) and our grower-collective, the Wayanad Agricultural Society (FLO 38805), hold standing in the registry. Every premium dollar maps back to a named farmer, a named lot, a named harvest week.
Cherry on the vine, blossom before the monsoon, the day's pick sorted by hand, pepper drying in the yard, green parchment in the sack. This is the supply chain — photographed, not illustrated.
All photography from Moolakara member estates, Cherukattoor & Mananthavady · no stock images.
Twenty-four export shipments. Sixteen named buyers. Three continents. We don't trade through middlemen — these are direct names on the bill of lading.
Trieste-based arm of the Volcafe group — among the largest green-coffee traders in the world. Receives our Robusta parcels for Northern-Italy roasters.
Family-run Rotterdam green-coffee specialist (est. 1933). A repeat lifter of our certified Fairtrade lots into the Benelux market.
Sydney-based specialty green trader supplying micro-roasters across Australia and New Zealand. Recent buyer of single-origin Wayanad Robusta.
+ 13 further buyers across Belgium, Germany & the Indian domestic market.
See the full export ledger →Our parcels leave via Cochin / Mangalore ports and clear at Antwerp, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Trieste and Sydney. Below: every flag on the active manifest.
Spectrum grader
Spectrum sorter lineHuller (15 t/hr), grader, sorter and de-stoner — the actual machines on the Cherukattoor floor, sized to absorb peak monsoon-clearing parcels without ever changing hands. Every lot is hulled, graded, optically sorted and de-stoned under one roof, then stencilled with its batch number before it leaves.
"Wayanad has the elevation, the soil and the rain. What it has lacked is a curing house that tells that story straight to the buyer in Antwerp, Hamburg or Sydney. That is the work."— Sunny Moolakkara Thomas · Director, Moolakara Wayanad Spices Pvt. Ltd.
Most of our manifest moves on a recurring contract. But every new buyer starts the same way — a short brief on the destination roastery or kitchen, a 500-g sample parcel, a phone call. Tell us what you're looking for.