Coffee beans from Thandaunggyi Township conveyed to China

Coffee beans from Thandaunggyi Township, Kayin State are delivered to China and fetched K3.5 million to K4 million per tonne, according to a report cited by the Ministry of Commerce’s Commerce Journal.
Traders from Toungoo city purchased the coffee beans, areca nuts and cardamom from Thandaunggyi Township. The coffee beans are priced K5,000-K7,000 per viss depending on the varieties. The coffee powder is sold at K20,000 in the domestic markets.
Those coffee beans are cultivated with low pesticide use. The occurrence of pest damage in coffee farms and shortage of workers at harvest time reduced the outputs of quality.
As a result of this, the quality of coffee beans from the Thandaunggyi area does not meet specialty quality produced by the Ywangan area.
There are 9,863 acres of Robusta coffee across Thandaunggyi Township, according to the statistics of the district Agriculture Department.
The production is estimated at 172 viss per acre. The coffee beans are abundantly harvested in February and March.
With technical assistance for harvesting and post-harvest handling practices, coffee beans from the Thandaunggyi area might penetrate more international markets.
Myanmar will add 300,000 more coffee cultivation acres in five years from the 2023-2024 financial year, with a view to boosting exports, penetrating more international markets and becoming one of the leading coffee exporting countries.
According to Myanmar Coffee Association, there are 40,000 acres of highland coffee (Arabica) plantations and about 10,000 acres under lowland coffee (Robusta) in Myanmar, totalling 50,000 acres. Shan State is the main producer of coffee beans. The annual yield is estimated at over 9,000 tonnes of coffee beans.
The country ships about 800-1,000 tonnes of coffee beans to Asian countries, the US and European countries every year.
Myanmar’s specialty coffee beans are highly demanded due to their high quality and organic production. Specialty coffee fetches a good price as well. Myanmar ships coffee beans to the external market without affecting the domestic consumption, Myanmar Coffee Association stated.—GNLM