Technology advances required for processing speciality coffee

For Myanmar coffee to earn speciality coffee status, technology advances play a pivotal role in the production chain, said Union Minister U Tin Htut Oo for Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation.
He gave a remark at the work coordination meeting of the Shan State government and the ministries concerned to ramp up the coffee and tea leaf production chain in Shan State, held at Taunggyi Hotel on 6 June 2022.
Additionally, he encouraged the groups of local coffee growers from the main producing areas; Ywangan, Nawnghkio, Pinlaung and Hopong to become a commercially valued products. He also urged the officials concerned to choose marketable coffee seeds which are resilient to climate and increase the sowing acreage.
At present, efforts are being exerted to form a coffee central group including the related departments and region and state governments with an aim to penetrate the international market and improve the whole supply chain, value chain and distribution channels (production, packaging, trading, attracting investment and building foreign market connection). Chair of the Myanmar Coffee Association, the Coffee Producers and Exporters Association, coffee growers’ groups and representatives from the private sector are included in the central committee.
The central committee targets to achieve those goals; increasing coffee plantation acres, utilizing the pedigree coffee seeds, improving the yield, producing speciality coffee, and foreign market expansion.
Myanmar Coffee Association organized coffee cupping competitions by inviting international coffee experts in 2015 and Myanmar’s coffee earned 89 points. Mogok coffee stood first at the coffee cupping event in 2018 and it was awarded second place in 2019. According to a 2016 survey of the Food and Agriculture Organization, Myanmar was listed in 39th rank with an annual production of 8,474 tonnes.
Myanmar Coffee Association and a coffee company joined SCAJ World Specialty Coffee Conference & Exhibition only in 2018 and 2019, which is organized by the Speciality Coffee Association of Japan (SCAJ) in November every year.
There are over 7,000 coffee acres in the Ywangan area and over 10,000 acres in Nawnghkio in Shan State which accounts for over 50 per cent of coffee acres across Myanmar. Moreover, Shan State has suitable land for coffee plantations. — MNA