Sri Lanka’s success on the world stage depends on its ability to market itself — from promoting the island as a tourist destination to building recognition for homegrown industries like tea, spices, and now, coffee. According to Rinosh Nasar, Founder & CEO of Soul Coffee Group, the company is helping rebuild the country’s connection to the global coffee trade by first developing the industry locally.
As the coffee sector gains momentum, he says understanding where it stands today is key.
How would you describe the current state of Sri Lanka’s coffee market? What stage of maturity are we in as a producing and consuming nation?
The island’s coffee market is experiencing a revival, both in production and consumption. Historically, Sri Lanka was a global leader in coffee production — even before regions like India and Indonesia entered the market. However, the coffee blight in the 19th century led to a shift towards tea, causing a long pause in commercial coffee cultivation. For decades, coffee existed mainly as a homegrown, locally traded product with limited commercial value.
Over the past 10 to 15 years, however, the industry has undergone a significant transformation. A renewed interest in cultivating high-quality, locally grown coffee has emerged, driven in part by entrepreneurs identifying gaps in the market. On the production side, Sri Lanka now grows coffee that meets international taste and quality standards. On the consumer side, cafés and roasters increasingly prefer local coffee — and this is not just for its cost benefits but also for its quality standards and freshness.
Despite high import duties making foreign coffee expensive, the local product has gained traction on its own merit. In some cases, premium local coffee even commands a higher price than imported options, which marks a major shift from earlier years when cost was the main selling point. Today, demand is driven by quality, not just affordability.
Soul Coffee Group has grown beyond roasting into a full coffee ecosystem. How did that shift happen, and what gaps did you have to bridge from farms to cafés?
Soul Coffee Group’s evolution into a full coffee ecosystem began with roasting — right at the centre of the value chain. This position gave us a connection to both the beginning and end of the process, starting with farming and going all the way to consumption. Early on, we saw that improving roast quality alone wasn’t enough. The raw coffee beans coming in lacked consistency due to poor farming practices, processing methods, and a general lack of knowledge.
We addressed this by working directly with smallholder farmers and partner plantations, offering hands-on training in cultivation, harvesting, and processing. This not only improved coffee quality but also increased farmer incomes.
Once the backend was stabilised, focus shifted to the frontend — cafés, baristas, and equipment. We introduced barista training, machine servicing, and brewing education programmes, ensuring that good coffee wasn’t lost at the final step. Through coffee workshops, barista training, and brewing techniques, we now support the entire chain. The sole exception is that we have yet to launch our own café.
How do spaces like Soul Brewology drive innovation and education within Sri Lanka’s coffee community, and how do those insights shape Soul Coffee’s customer experience?
Soul Brewology serves to bridge global trends with local practice. Through partnerships with international brands and access to cutting-edge equipment and brewing techniques, it allows us to introduce new methods and technologies ahead of the local curve. By showcasing the strength of local specialty coffee from Soul Coffee Roasters, alongside international origins from the globally renowned Australian brand Ona Coffee, we deliver new and exciting customer experiences.
Further, we regularly host training programmes run by Sri Lanka’s award-winning barista talent, further enhancing knowledge sharing and skill development among the teams we work with.
Soul Coffee Roasters emphasises “farm-to-cup transparency.” How do you translate that principle into practice, and how does it shape your leadership approach in an emerging industry?
Transparency is built and maintained through our direct, face-to-face relationships with farmers. We make every effort to keep track of where every bean comes from and who is responsible for them. Unlike many who source through multiple layers of collectors or middlemen, Soul Coffee Roasters works directly with both small and larger farmers, ensuring that each batch is tracked with lot numbers to guarantee full traceability.
This hands-on approach is supported by a dedicated team of field officers who regularly visit farms in person, gathering detailed information about planting dates, fertiliser use, and yields. Since the farmer base is still relatively small — under a thousand properties — this personalised approach works well for us. We are able to map every lot down to the exact farm or region it originated from, creating a record of origin rarely seen in the market.
Leadership here means investing deeply and patiently in the entire value chain, focusing on long-term trust, quality, and sustainable farmer relationships rather than rapid scaling. Digitisation, for instance, will be introduced only when the scale demands it.
What sets Sri Lankan coffee apart globally, and how do you see Soul Coffee Group shaping the island’s recognition and growth in international markets?
Sri Lankan coffee stands out globally due to its unique growing conditions — including ideal soil, elevation, and climate within the coffee-growing belt. This pairs well with the country’s long but often overlooked heritage of coffee cultivation. Soul Coffee Group aims to renew and build upon this legacy, not just through production but by positioning Sri Lankan coffee for international recognition. By investing in advanced processing techniques that meet global competition standards, the brand is crafting high-value coffees with distinct profiles. The long-term vision is to establish “Sri Lankan Coffee” on the world stage, much like Ceylon tea — creating a lasting identity and market presence for Sri Lanka.