External demand for Myanma coffee on the rise

As the country receives high raw coffee bean demand from foreign countries, there are no more raw products in the country, according to Myanmar Coffee Association.
The country exports 75 per cent of raw coffee beans this year and the transactions are in good condition at good prices for high foreign demand. The plantation rate is also increased to nearly 10 per cent from previous years, according to the association.
The government will grant loans to the coffee growers at proper interest rates, said Prime Minister Senior General Min Aung Hlaing during the meeting with coffee businesspeople in PyinOoLwin on 2 December.
‘The coffee season starts in November. Locally produced coffee fetches good prices in foreign countries. They order raw materials from other countries and produce the finished products. So, they import raw coffee beans from Myanmar. We need to produce high-quality finished coffee products and grab a certain rank as Myanma Coffee in the global market,” said a coffee entrepreneur.
This year, the coffee production rate in the world has declined and Myanma coffee can get good prices and there would be high cultivation for good climate conditions. Myanma coffee is marketed to 16 countries including the US, Canada, Switzerland, Dubai, South Korea, China, Japan and Germany.
The country produces between 8,000 and 10,000 tonnes of coffee yearly and the coffee is priced around US$8,300 per tonne at the maximum and about $5,500 per tonne at the minimum.
Although the coffee demand from foreign countries declined during the outbreak of COVID-19, it is on the rise again this year.
Ninety per cent of the coffee production in Myanmar is Arabica coffee. Shan State and Mandalay Region produce the majority of coffee and the country has 49,000 acres of coffee plantations including Robusta coffee. — TWA/KTZH