Tribeland Coffee - An upcoming startup initiative with coffee beans from Mizoram

PB Larinfela, the founder, CEO, or chief executive officer of the upcoming startup Tribeland Coffee, started Tribeland Coffee, a brand born in Mizoram. Larinfela narrates about his journey and future aspirations for Tribeland Coffee.

By PB Larinfela

I graduated in Hotel and Hospitality Management from the Institute of Hotel Management Goa in 2011. My specialization was food production. After graduation, I wanted to become a chef, but things did not work out as planned.

I came back to Aizwal and decided to do something on my own. I thought, why not work with local products and try to market them? I tried working with Chilies, which failed, and then Ginger, which also failed. I learned that Mizoram has a sizeable amount of land where coffee is cultivated. So, I tried with coffee beans, and that clicked.

I started working on coffee beans in 2019. But during those days, I was also a government employee working as a program manager for Rural Development. I resigned from the government job in 2022.

Funding and challenges

Generating money was tough as I needed more cash flow. Also, there was no one in my family to help me financially. I had to work extra hours and do odd jobs for my upkeep those days.

I used to clean dishes in a hotel, bake and sell bread in the market, sell oranges and apples, and do household chores as money had to keep flowing. I was born into a low-income family. My paternal brother, Lalhruaitluanga, took care of my education. Since I was good in my studies, this brother supported me all through, and today, he is associated with Tribeland Coffee. He is still funding me in my venture.

Lalhruaitluanga, the COO or the chief operating officer, who is also one of the co-founders, takes care of everything; I give my suggestions. We had to take a loan of Rs 5,00,000 from a private investor and a loan of Rs 5,00,000 lakh from the bank, for a total of Rs 10,00,000. Now, our valuation has crossed Rs 60,00,000.

There are three of us taking care of Tribeland Coffee: myself, Lalhruaitluanga, and P.B Lalduhzuala, a co-founder and the CFO or chief finance officer.

We sell most of our products, 90% in the local market. The demand is enormous. We cannot meet the expected demand as we do not get the supply from the farmer.

We are facing this challenge, but we are working on it now. We are working with the farmers directly to increase the production of the product. Presently, we have around 250-plus farmers who are willing to work with us. So, we are helping them procure the raw materials.

Registering Tribeland Coffee

We want at least 500 farmers with us. That's how big a market we are having now.

After procuring coffee beans, processing is done, we have our unit in Mega Food Park, which is under the government of Mizoram. The Mizoram government invited us to incubate the product in the mega food park in Khamrang village, which is 20 kilometers from Aizwal. We have set up the processing unit there with our funds. We procured the series of multiple machines like roasters, cleaners, and polymers required for the unit from Karnataka and Chennai.

Presently, we are producing 50 kilograms of coffee every day. We are working with six coffee cafes now. More are showing interest, but we are not accepting them because the supply of coffee beans is less. But soon, we should be able to capture at least 15 cafes. We must wait at least a year to get an adequate supply of coffee beans.

We are currently in a firm partnership with the government of Mizoram. By this year, we will register the company as a Pvt Ltd and a startup and explore markets in other states of India.

For more information you can refer to our website www.tribelandcoffee.com

As narrated to Moon Sai Ram