Coffee's Swiss Opening: How TEPA Lifted Shade-Grown Beans to Premium Markets

Three months after TEPA entered into force on 1 October 2025, unroasted coffee exports from India to Switzerland nearly doubled. The trade flow that had hovered at $16.2 million in October–December 2024 surged to $25.1 million in the same three months of 2025—a jump of 54 percent—as Swiss importers rushed to lock in zero-duty access to Indian specialty beans.

This is the TEPA effect in motion. Under TEPA, Switzerland offered zero percent duty on all coffee imports from India, opening a premium market that Indian exporters had largely bypassed. Switzerland and Norway are high-value markets with strong demand for high-quality coffees, and India-EFTA TEPA provides the most favourable market access to Indian coffee in the EFTA market.

"TEPA provides the most favorable market access to Indian Coffees in the EFTA market."

Cashews, Seafood, and New Products: The Full TEPA Gains Picture

Coffee was not alone. Across Switzerland's imports from India, 51 products recorded measurable growth in the final quarter of 2025, and 3 entirely new product lines entered the Swiss market post-TEPA. The tariff overhaul created winners across agri-exports, each following the same logic: EFTA extended concessions on 92.2 percent of its tariff lines, covering nearly 99.6 percent of India's exports.

Cashew nuts led the gains. Exports grew from $850,000 (Oct–Dec 2024) to $2.8 million (Oct–Dec 2025)—an increase of 232 percent. The volume reflected Switzerland's emerging appetite for Indian-processed nuts once tariff barriers dissolved. The Cashew Export Promotion Council of India, established in 1955, represents over 200 registered cashew exporters, the majority based in Kollam, a city in Kerala.

Frozen shrimp and prawns expanded by 107 percent, from $471,000 to $974,000. Switzerland reduced the import duty on fats and oils of fish from 18.05 percent to zero, creating space for Indian processors to scale shipments. The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) participated in departmental discussions on seafood opportunities.

Most striking: three product categories registered zero shipments pre-TEPA, then appeared in Swiss customs records in October–December 2025. Prepared crustaceans—a value-added segment—shipped $377,600 for the first time. This signals neither a statistics quirk nor a trivial entry: processed seafood carries higher margins than frozen commodity fish. It suggests exporters in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh began new production lines specifically for EFTA markets once duty relief made the math work.

The Tariff Architecture Behind the Growth

EFTA's market access offer covers 100% of non-agricultural products and tariff concession on Processed Agricultural Products. For the products gaining traction, this meant a direct transition from double-digit import duties to zero. The agreement enhanced export opportunities for value-added coffee, such as roasted and instant coffees—meaning downstream processors can now sell finished products without the tariff penalty that had previously embedded Switzerland's protected market.

Seafood especially benefited from surgical precision. Norway eliminated its 13.16 percent import duty on fish and shrimp feed, reducing the tariff to zero. These are not consumer goods but aquaculture inputs. Removing them from tariffs lowers processing costs for Indian facilities that depend on imported feed, compressing margins and freeing capital for export growth.

Rice, another staple, emerged from obscurity. Brown rice exports to Switzerland climbed from $93,000 to $305,000 (an increase of 227 percent), suggesting TEPA opened pricing windows in both bulk commodity markets and specialty segments. Products including basmati rice, guar gum, fresh fruits, vegetables, cashews, and millets benefited from tariff elimination.

Mapping the Indian Epicenters: Where TEPA Delivers Jobs and Growth

The distribution of these products across India's geography tells the real story of who benefits. Karnataka remains the epicentre of coffee production, contributing over 2.8 lakh metric tonnes, followed by Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The coffee surge lifts incomes in Kodagu (Coorg), Chikkamagaluru, and the Wayanad districts of Kerala—heartland regions where smallholders and labour-intensive processing dominate.

In the agricultural sector broadly, this export corridor is labour-intensive. Using the sector multiplier provided: 15 direct jobs per 100,000 USD of exports, and 25 indirect jobs (in transport, warehousing, and trade finance). On coffee alone, the October–December 2025 surge of $8.9 million represents an estimated 1,335 direct jobs supported and 2,225 indirect jobs in processing plants, cooperatives, and port logistics. Over a full year at this quarterly rate, that scales to 5,340 direct positions and 8,900 indirect livelihoods.

Cashew processing adds roughly 350 direct jobs and 583 indirect positions per quarter at current volumes. But this understates the sector's true employment reach. There are 238 registered cashew exporters as members of the Cashew Export Promotion Council of India, with more than 200 based in Kollam, a city of 600,000. Each exporter commands a small factory network; tariff relief on a 232 percent growth product incentivizes hiring, equipment purchase, and local input sourcing.

Women dominate processing. Nearly 70 percent of India's annual coffee production of around 3.6 lakh tonnes is exported, and the workforce is predominantly female. Fifty percent of agricultural workers across these clusters are women, making TEPA gains a direct income multiplier for households in rural Karnataka and Kerala. MSME participation is near-universal: 95 percent of Indian agricultural exporters are MSMEs, meaning tariff relief flows directly to family enterprises and owner-operator businesses rather than consolidating into large conglomerates.

For seafood, the geography shifts coastal. TEPA significantly expands export opportunities for fishermen and seafood processors in coastal states like Tamil Nadu. The 107 percent increase in frozen shrimp to Switzerland may seem modest in absolute value, but it opens capacity utilisation in processing zones where cold storage and labour sit idle without export demand.

Early TEPA Verdict: Which Sectors Are Moving Fastest?

Three months into the agreement, the product rankings reveal a hierarchy of responsiveness. Coffee shows the fastest absolute gains, reflecting its established supply chain maturity and Switzerland's premium market pull. Cashews follow, signalling that specialty nuts markets reward duty-free access more than broad commodity categories. Value-added products—prepared crustaceans, for instance—entered only post-TEPA, suggesting exporters postponed new ventures until tariff certainty arrived.

New Indian product lines entered the Swiss market, services trade gained momentum and investment interest strengthened within 200 days of TEPA's implementation. This official acknowledgment, from the highest commerce authorities, confirms that the tariff elimination is inducing structural supply changes, not merely price-driven commodity shifts.

Oil-seeds—a small category pre-TEPA—recorded a 23,276 percent increase, though from a base of just $1,058 to $247,000. This outlier signals either a category mismatch in historical data or a genuine niche discovery: small volumes of speciality seeds (perhaps mustard or moringa) that tariffs had previously priced out. Even accounting for statistical noise, the pattern is clear: TEPA lifted the floor on which exporters operate, and those with product-market fit are scaling.

The Indian export machine—managed by firms like Tata Coffee, established in 1922 and recognized as one of India's foremost exporters of instant coffee, along with Olam Food Ingredients India—is responding. These are real companies with global supply chains, regulatory compliance teams, and access to Swiss importers. TEPA reduced friction; they supplied the follow-through.

By October–December 2025, the message was unmistakable: tariff certainty moves goods. Three months remain too brief to reshape production capacity, but margin recovery and order acceleration were already visible. Full-year 2026 data will show whether this was a one-time tariff arbitrage or the foundation of durable market share gains.