ITC commenced its Coffee trade operations in 1990 when Coffees were sourced mainly from the auctions held by the Coffee Board. After the liberalisation of Coffee trade in 1994, the planters were allowed to directly sell to interested Buyers without the intervention of the Coffee Board. The initial period was a testing time for the entire industry. Suddenly there were new players in the market. Many of them were quick to cash in on the thriving trade, fuelled by the whopping price increase due to the frost in Brazil that year. Market rules ceased to exist and defaults were rampant. Many players were forced to exit later.

It was imperative for ITC-ABD to quickly adapt itself to the changing scenario as Raw Coffee had to be procured from the estates to sustain the operations. However, it had to ensure that adequate systems were in place to assure that shipments of quality coffees were effected without hiccups. Procurement centres in Coorg and Chickmagalur areas were set up to facilitate buying of Raw Coffees from the estates through a network of agents. Curing Arrangements were made with select Coffee Curing Works having state-of-the-art facilities to process the Raw Coffees. A dedicated team from ITC was stationed at these Curing Works to oversee the operations and to ensure compliance to the quality specifications as required by the customers. The integrated quality approach and system continues to be in place since the last 5 years, with constant improvements in each of the processes involving receipt, curing and dispatch of the coffees.