• Burmese
Friday, July 11, 2025
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
26 °c
Yangon
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home Business

Coffee Country

Nyein Nyein by Nyein Nyein
June 20, 2015
in Uncategorized
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0 0
A A
Coffee Country

Ye Myint of the Myanmar Coffee Association. (Photo: Nyein Nyein / The Irrawaddy)|Workers tend to coffee shrubs. (Photo: Nyein Nyein / The Irrawaddy)|Coffee saplings grow amid the shade of larger trees. (Photo: Nyein Nyein / The Irrawaddy)|Coffee beans laid out to dry. (Photo: Nyein Nyein / The Irrawaddy)|Coffee beans being treated at Ye Myint’s farm. (Photo: Nyein Nyein / The Irrawaddy)

7.9k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Workers tend to coffee shrubs. (Photo: Nyein Nyein / The Irrawaddy)
Coffee saplings grow amid the shade of larger trees. (Photo: Nyein Nyein / The Irrawaddy)
Coffee beans laid out to dry. (Photo: Nyein Nyein / The Irrawaddy)

Coffee beans being treated at Ye Myint’s farm. (Photo: Nyein Nyein / The Irrawaddy)
Coffee Country
Ye Myint of the Myanmar Coffee Association. (Photo: Nyein Nyein / The Irrawaddy)|Workers tend to coffee shrubs. (Photo: Nyein Nyein / The Irrawaddy)|Coffee saplings grow amid the shade of larger trees. (Photo: Nyein Nyein / The Irrawaddy)|Coffee beans laid out to dry. (Photo: Nyein Nyein / The Irrawaddy)|Coffee beans being treated at Ye Myint’s farm. (Photo: Nyein Nyein / The Irrawaddy)

PYIN OO LWIN, Mandalay Division — Standing outside his home an hour’s drive from the northern town of Pyin Oo Lwin, Ye Myint looks out on a view of rolling hills and imagines a greener, more prosperous future.

“This region could be the coffee capital of Myanmar,” said the fifty-something who is banding together with other farmers in the north to try to take Myanmar’s coffee profile to the next level.

Myanmar has grown coffee since the British introduced Arabica plants to Shan State. Today coffee plants are grown in numerous locations throughout the country, from Kachin State in the north to Mon State in the south, but on a relatively small scale and largely at the lower end of the business.

RelatedPosts

Ma Win Maw Oo, soaked in blood, is carried by two medics on Sept. 19, 1988 in downtown Yangon after troops gunned down peaceful demonstrators. / S. Lehman / Visions

Why the Past Can’t Be Put to Rest

September 19, 2020
8.2k
Renowned Myanmar language teacher John Okell is still inspiring students, five decades on.

Love of the Lingo

August 5, 2020
10.2k
Maung Thaw Ka (standing, left) accompanies Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (with microphone) during her first-ever speech to the Myanmar public, delivered outside Yangon General Hospital on Aug. 24, 1988, two days before her historic address to a huge crowd outside the city’s Shwedagon Pagoda.

A Tribute to Maung Thaw Ka

June 11, 2020
7.6k

“It’s a sad reality that we have fine raw materials here, but we’re not producing many high-quality products,” said Ye Myint.

Much of the country’s coffee output consists of lower-grade Robusta beans for instant coffee and export. Better quality Arabica beans grown in Shan State and other locations are mainly sold to traders at the Myanmar-China border and elsewhere for low prices.

In order to try and kick start a new era, Ye Myint and other coffee farmers in Pyin Oo Lwin and Moe Gote in Mandalay Region, and Naung Cho and Ywar Ngan in Shan State, formed the Myanmar Coffee Association (MCA) last year.

Its members want to increase home-grown processing of beans to create higher-grade finished products, including specialty coffees.

They also hope that more coffee associations will spring up throughout the country, including in locations such as Kayin, Kachin and Kayah states, to help boost the industry, raise livelihoods and encourage competition.

This year, however, the MCA is trying out taking joint action among its members to protect prices. In 2014, the price for beans fell to 300 kyat per 0.65 kilogram, which did not cover some farmers’ costs. Some didn’t even bother to collect their harvest. So in 2015 the association members have agreed to set a standard price of 500-700 kyats per 0.65 kilo for their beans.

Moving forward in the emerging sector still involves a lot of trial and error.

Ye Myint was a farming novice when he began growing coffee using organic methods 16 years ago on 200 acres of land near Pyin Oo Lwin.

He has seen a lot of setbacks over the years, from his plants failing to thrive, to fires on the plantation. With some help from the state agricultural arm, he has conducted continuous testing of growing methods and plants.

The fact that the venture has often made losses hasn’t dimmed his passion for the business.

“I just have to keep trying,” he said, while walking amid some of his planted saplings that are tended to by migrant workers who earn between 2,500 and 5,000 kyat a day, depending on their qualifications.

MCA secretary Min Hlaing, who has a 40-acre coffee farm, estimates that the Pyin Oo Lwin area has around 5,000 acres under coffee, including some in tiny 5-acre plots owned by locals who also grow produce like strawberries and flowers.

That’s still far short of the portion envisaged by the former military government when in 2002 it launched a plan to plant around two hundred thousand acres of coffee throughout the country, mainly in highland areas. Large swathes of land were seized or reallocated for the purpose, much of it still unused.

Last year Tin Maung, a union lawmaker from a constituency in Mandalay, said in parliament that about 18,000 acres are under coffee nationwide. Around Pyin Oo Lwin, much land earmarked for coffee remains idle in the hands of former military figures, a local said on condition of anonymity.

Deforestation in the area, including for the production of quick lime, is also taking a toll as the climate becomes hotter and drier.

Coffee growers say their businesses can help the environment, as they plant larger trees to provide shade for the coffee shrubs.

For now, the main challenge is to improve the product and find new markets. Ye Myint is completing a new processing plant for that purpose.

His fellow MCA member Soe Hlaing manages the 100-acre Myanmar Coffee Plantation company, which began its own processing in 2010.

After its products garnered interest at a food trade fair in South Korea, it is increasing yearly production of 13 tons by some 50 percent.

“Japanese and Korean dealers bought our products last year and liked them, so this year we aim to produce 20 tons,” said Soe Hlaing.

This article originally appeared in the June 2015 issue of The Irrawaddy magazine.

Your Thoughts …
Tags: A_FactivaMagazine
Nyein Nyein

Nyein Nyein

The Irrawaddy

Similar Picks:

Aung San: A Legacy Unfulfilled
Stories That Shaped Us

Aung San: A Legacy Unfulfilled

by Kyaw Zwa Moe
February 11, 2015
14.5k

Born in 1915, Aung San’s aspirations for a unified and democratic Myanmar went unfulfilled in his lifetime and have yet...

Read moreDetails
Kokang: The Backstory
Burma

Kokang: The Backstory

by Bertil Lintner
March 9, 2015
18k

The site of fierce recent fighting, Shan State’s Kokang region has a complex history of feuding warlords and thriving drug...

Read moreDetails
Inspiring Women of Burma  
Burma

Inspiring Women of Burma  

by The Irrawaddy
March 18, 2016
33.6k

The contributions of some of Burma’s leading female figures are highlighted in the final part of a series that ran...

Read moreDetails
Trickle Town
Stories That Shaped Us

Trickle Town

by Aung Zaw
August 13, 2014
7.7k

As Yangon’s Golden Valley enjoys an unexpected cash bonanza, questions around some surprise beneficiaries of the current reform period are...

Read moreDetails
Australian-Karen Actress: ‘I Hope Karen People Will Have the Right to Self-Determination’
Asia

Australian-Karen Actress: ‘I Hope Karen People Will Have the Right to Self-Determination’

by Saw Yan Naing
January 18, 2016
13.7k

Tasneem Roc, an Australian actress who also has ethnic Karen roots, speaks with The Irrawaddy about her career and her...

Read moreDetails
Burma’s Media Landscape Through the Years
Burma

Burma’s Media Landscape Through the Years

by The Irrawaddy
May 4, 2016
13.5k

In the wake of World Press Freedom Day, celebrated on Tuesday, The Irrawaddy revisits a history of Burmese media stretching...

Read moreDetails
Load More
Next Post
Suu Kyi Vows Transparency With Candidates’ Asset Disclosures

Suu Kyi Vows Transparency With Candidates’ Asset Disclosures

Bhaddamta Vimala

Bhaddamta Vimala

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

Trump’s Tariffs to Hit Myanmar’s Garment Manufacturers Hard

Trump’s Tariffs to Hit Myanmar’s Garment Manufacturers Hard

2 days ago
947
‘Reforms Are Not Optional’: Prominent Activist Urges NUG to Act Before It’s Too Late

‘Reforms Are Not Optional’: Prominent Activist Urges NUG to Act Before It’s Too Late

2 days ago
940

Most Read

  • Chinese Investment Reshapes Myanmar’s N. Shan as MNDAA Consolidates Power

    Chinese Investment Reshapes Myanmar’s N. Shan as MNDAA Consolidates Power

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta Deploying Conscripts in Major Push to Reclaim Lost Territory

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Junta Bombing of Resistance-Held Areas in Mandalay, Karenni Kills Seven Civilians

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Two Prominent Myanmar Ex-Political Prisoners Die Hours Apart in Yangon

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Chin Resistance Tensions Boil Over as CNA Seizes Rival’s Myanmar HQ

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Books
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.