India Post releases commemorative postage stamp on coffee as fragrance stamp

The India Post on 23 April 2017 released a Commemorative Postage Stamp on Coffee as a Fragrance Stamp in Bengaluru. The stamp was jointly released by Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman and Union Minister of State for Communications Manoj Sinha.

After releasing the postage stamp, Nirmala Sitharaman thanked the department of Posts for releasing the stamp and printing one lakh stamps in the denomination of Rs 100. These fragrance stamps will be available for sale at Bengaluru GPO, Mysuru, Mangaluru and Belgaum Philately Bureaus and other head post offices in the state from the date of its release.

She also said that such cross coordination between the Coffee and Postal Departments would go a long way in promoting coffee for which India was known as a major producer of specialised flavours of the beverage bean.

At present, the coffee is being planted in non-traditional areas like parts of hilly Odisha, Araku in Andhra Pradesh and other places in North India. Sitharaman also urged the coffee board to brand the Indian coffee in the lines of tribals in Araku who had opened sleek outlets in Paris and garnered much-wanted attention for the Indian Coffee.

In 1973, Bhutan became the first country to release aromatic stamps and was followed by countries like New Zealand, Thailand and Switzerland. However, India joined the league of countries with aromatic stamps in 2006 by launching Rs 15 sandalwood-scented stamp. About 30 lakh of these stamps were sold out within 15 days. Later in 2007, India Post released rose-scented stamps priced at Rs 5; these stamps were released in four varieties of flower namely Neelam, Jawahar, Delhi Princess and Bhim. In 2008, the rose scented stamps were joined by the jasmine fragrance.