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Coffee's Swiss Gateway Opens: TEPA Writes New Export Chapter for Indian Growers

From shade-grown plantations in Karnataka and Kerala, Indian coffee is now poised to capture premium market share in Switzerland and Norway. The landmark Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) between India and the EFTA States (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) entered into force on 1 October 2025, and the tariff data tells a compelling story: unroasted coffee exports to Switzerland leapt 54% in just three months — from $16.2 million in October-December 2024 to $25.1 million in the same quarter a year later.

This is no accident. EFTA has offered Import Duty of 0% on all the HS lines pertaining to Coffee, and Switzerland and Norway are high-value markets with strong demand for high quality coffee. Overnight, tariff barriers that had once dampened Swiss demand for Indian specialty grades vanished. The result: a 232% surge in cashew exports to Switzerland (from $850K to $2.8M), a 1,293% explosion in frozen cuttlefish and squid, and the emergence of entirely new product categories — including preserved crustaceans — that had never shipped to the Swiss market before.

Within 200 days of TEPA's implementation, new Indian product lines have entered the Swiss market, signaling that tariff elimination alone is catalyzing entry into European supply chains that were previously out of reach for mid-size Indian exporters.

The TEPA Winners: Five Products Reshaping India-Switzerland Trade

While Switzerland's aggregate trade with India remained virtually flat at $47 billion post-TEPA, the story beneath the headline reveals a market in motion. Five product categories are driving the visible growth:

• Coffee (unroasted): $25.1M (Oct-Dec 2025) — up 54% from the previous year, now the leading beneficiary of zero-duty access in high-value Swiss markets.
• Cashew kernels and nuts: $2.8M — growing 232% as EFTA's large demand base encounters Indian processors positioned for premium positioning.
• Frozen shrimp and prawns: $974K — climbing 107% as the EFTA States undertake to maintain the abolition of all customs duties on imports of industrial products, fish and other marine products that originate from India.
• Oil-seeds and oleaginous fruits: $247K — rocketing 23,276% from near-zero baseline, indicating entirely new supplier relationships taking root.
• Rice (husked): $305K — up 227%, suggesting TEPA's transparency in rules of origin is enabling basmati and commodity rice to reach Swiss wholesalers previously sourced from other suppliers.

Three entirely new product categories — preserved crustaceans ($378K), and two others — appeared in Swiss customs data only after October 2025. These are not statistical noise. They represent fresh supply chain connections, new buyer introductions, and the first commercial shipments under TEPA's lowered compliance and tariff cost structure.

Inside the Tariff Shifts: How Access Moved the Numbers

Under the terms of the agreement, EFTA states will eliminate or sharply reduce tariffs on the vast majority of imports from India, covering about 99.6% of India's export value to EFTA. For agriculture specifically, the removal or reduction of tariffs has opened new markets for Indian products like guar gum, basmati rice, grapes, and pulses, and Switzerland and Norway, which together account for over 99 percent of India's agri-exports to the EFTA region, have removed import duties on fresh grapes, nuts, seeds, and processed vegetables.

The coffee story is instructive. EFTA member countries — Switzerland (USD 145 million), Norway (USD 27 million) and Iceland (USD 3 million) — together import coffee valued at USD 175 million, which is about 3% of the global coffee imports, and TEPA provides most favorable market access to Indian Coffees in EFTA market, helping coffee exporters access the premium markets in Switzerland, Norway and Iceland with the opportunity for positioning India's high-quality shade grown, handpicked and sun-dried coffees. That $175 million opportunity was previously defended by Swiss tariffs; now it lies open. The 54% growth in three months suggests Indian exporters are already capturing incremental share as European roasters and specialty retailers test new origin profiles.

From Coastal Processors to Plantation Towns: Livelihoods Connected to These Flows

Behind these export numbers stand workers, families, and rural communities across India. The beneficiary sectors employ diverse clusters across the nation:

Coffee: Driven by plantations in Karnataka (Coorg and Chikmagalur districts) and Kerala (Wayanad and Idukki), where approximately 25 million people depend directly or indirectly on coffee cultivation and processing. Using standard export sector multipliers, each $1 million in coffee exports supports an estimated 15 direct jobs (harvesting, milling, quality control) and 30 indirect jobs (transport, warehousing, services). The $9 million gain in quarterly exports translates to roughly 135 direct and 270 indirect jobs activated in coffee-growing regions.

Cashew processing and shelling: Concentrated in Maharashtra (Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri), Odisha (Cuttack and Koraput), Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are the major cashew producing states of India. The cashew sector employs over 300,000 workers, with women comprising approximately 40% of the processing workforce — far higher than typical agricultural-export sectors. The 232% surge in cashew exports represents an estimated 35 additional direct jobs (sorting, grading, packaging) and 70 indirect jobs in transport and trade. Small and medium processors account for approximately 70% of India's cashew export capacity; TEPA's zero-duty access directly reduces their compliance costs and improves their ability to compete with Vietnamese processors.

Frozen seafood and shrimp: Frozen shrimp remained the key driver of growth, contributing ₹47,973.13 crore (USD 5.51 billion), accounting for more than two-thirds of total export earnings, as India's marine exports surged to an all-time high of ₹72,325.82 crore (USD 8.28 billion) in FY 2025-26. Seafood processors operate along coastal hubs in Andhra Pradesh (Visakhapatnam), Tamil Nadu (Chennai and Kochi), West Bengal (Kolkata), and Gujarat. The 107% growth in frozen shrimp shipments supports an estimated 16 direct jobs (processing, quality, packaging) and 32 indirect jobs (port logistics, cold-chain management) per quarter. Coastal Corporation Limited (India) is a BSE-listed seafood producer (ticker 'COASTCORP') engaged in the processing, production, and distribution of seafood globally, with HACCP, BRC, and BAP certifications and exports an extensive range of shrimp products to the US, Europe, Canada, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Hong Kong, Korea, China, and Russia.

Across these three sectors — coffee, cashew, and seafood — estimated direct employment from TEPA-driven export growth reaches approximately 186 jobs, with indirect employment (transport, warehousing, services, finance) adding roughly 372 positions. These are entry-level roles in rural and semi-urban Indian towns: processing line supervisors, quality inspectors, logistics coordinators, and warehouse managers earning between ₹8,000–₹18,000 monthly — wages that anchor family stability in agrarian regions competing with urban migration.

Women's participation in cashew processing and preliminary coffee preparation remains structural: approximately 25% of direct export-sector jobs in these categories are held by women, far below parity but representing pathways out of subsistence agriculture. TEPA's tariff elimination removes cost friction that had previously compressed margins; that margin recovery funds incremental hiring.

The Early Verdict: Which Sectors Are Moving First

Three months into TEPA, a pattern emerges: agricultural products with existing supply-chain infrastructure are capturing gains fastest. Coffee, cashews, and seafood have established export protocols, trade body coordination through Pharmexcil, the Spice Board, and the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), and buyer networks in Switzerland and Norway. These sectors faced high tariff barriers pre-TEPA; zero-duty access opens Swiss retail shelves and food-service channels previously closed by cost.

By contrast, industrial products show delayed entry. Engineering, organic chemicals, and pharmaceuticals lack similar tariff gains in TEPA (EFTA already maintained low industrial tariffs under prior MFN arrangements). India's engineering exports to the EFTA reached US$ 315.2 million in FY 2024–25, marking an 18% growth over the previous fiscal year, with Norway and Switzerland remaining the largest destinations, accounting for almost 99% of total exports. The growth here is steady but not explosive.

The surprise winner: niche agricultural products with minimal prior penetration. Cuttlefish and squid, preserved crustaceans, and oil-seeds represent small absolute values but extraordinary percentage growth — evidence that Indian processors are discovering new Swiss buyers and repositioning existing supply chains to serve Swiss food manufacturers previously dependent on Vietnamese or Ecuadorian suppliers.

TEPA is expected to generate substantial employment opportunities in India over the next 15 years, particularly for its young workforce. The October-December quarter offers an early glimpse: tariff relief alone cannot drive growth, but it removes a structural tax on Indian competitiveness. Exporters, once tariffs fell to zero, activated dormant buyer relationships, revised pricing, and accelerated shipments to Swiss warehouses. The result: 51 products grew in the first quarter, and three new categories appeared for the first time.

The trajectory matters. If coffee and cashew maintain their momentum, and if seafood processors continue to displace regional competitors in Swiss supermarkets, India will have genuinely converted market access into sustained export growth. The October 2025 baseline is no longer a ceiling — it is a floor. From coffee plantations in Coorg to cashew groves in Maharashtra to aquaculture farms in Andhra Pradesh, TEPA has opened a channel that post-agreement trends suggest Indian producers are prepared to fill.