Hopong Township cultivates over 750 acres of coffee plantations, exporting products to both local, foreign markets

There is over 750 acres of coffee plantations in Hopong Township of the Pa-O Self-Administered Zone in Shan State (South), and the production is shipped to local and foreign markets.
The yield of coffee beans is between 1,000-1,500 visses per acre. Two coffee varieties are grown as substitution crops supported by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Project and the Hopong Township Agriculture Department.
It is mostly cultivated in the Menei Hill region in Hopong. The current plants are about seven years old. The production is exported not only to the local market including Taunggyi, Yangon, Mandalay, Magway and Pakokku but the external market like Thailand, France, Singapore, Australia, Japan and the United States and the Netherlands, as well.
In addition, the product of coffee is sold as an instant coffee powder in the local market and as coffee beans in the overseas market. The 1,000-gramme instant coffee is valued at K2,500 and the one-kilogramme coffee beans are sold at K8,500.
The cost of a one-acre coffee plantation will be over K2.8 million in the first year in addition to the annual maintenance cost. The speciality coffee product from Vansauk village, Menei Hill region in Hopong Township has received the first award of the Myanmar Coffee Quality Competition 2018. — Pa-O region (IPRD)/GNLM