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was told that coffee from Myanmar got paid higher price and was
exported outside of Myanmar to the western world.
Ngu Shwe Lee farm owner, Kyaw Sein recently got lucky
and had signed the contract with Japanese coffee buyer who of- We are sure they will be able to
fered him $6.00 per kg for his natural process coffee and they
secured 1 ton of his hard work. I am really happy for him, and amaze us again.
hope he could find more buyers who appreciate the labor farm-
ers put in order to produce quality and not quantity, and who
can be rewarded for their tremendous job and love they put to
make our morning cup more delicious.
This farm as I was told send some of picked coffees to Costa Rica, varietal T8667. Nursery is planted largely with SL34,
Mandalay Coffee Group processing plant for further processing Kenyan varietal. Farm has 400 acres with 300 used for coffee.
and drying, and some executed inside the facility, particularly About 1200 trees per acre planted here. The farm received 2nd
natural and honey process. place in this year cupping competition in washed category. Farm
also specializes in dry process. Washed process is typically 24 to
BLUE MOUNTAIN COFFEE FARM 48 hours. During harvest season they employ 150 migrant work-
ers. Most pickers are women and get paid $0.10 per kg. Men are
The next in the itinerary is Blue Mountain Coffee farm in charge with processing, de-pulping and washing and get paid
located also in Pyin Oo Lwin, Myanmar at the elevation of 3,632 $4.00 per day. As the other farms I visited, Green Land involved
feet above sea level. This farm is owned by Philie who was in shade grown coffee.
awarded 4th place this year cupping competition in washed The impact of sustainability, high quality performance of
process category. At his farm 25% of natural process handles specialty coffee market in Myanmar is absolutely mind blowing.
inside the estate and the rest goes to Mandalay Coffee Group for Everyone in the value chain is on the run to be recognizable,
the final process and post production. He does not have moisture respected and do what is necessary to get top dollar for job that
meter in order to measure the % of moisture level inside the echoes in bringing Myanmar specialty coffee to the front line
beans. Instead he uses old traditional technique by biting the among other producing nations we know about. But some farm-
bean, and if it’s hard it means its ready to be stored in the ware- ers I spoke to expressed their uncertainty about future of Myan-
house to get stabilized. His farm is 75 acres and has 1200 coffee mar coffee once the USAID sponsored project would be termi-
trees planted per acre. Comparing to other coffee farms within nated in 2019. Who will be
Pyin Oo Lwin region I visited, Blue Mountain only produces there to monitor
T8667, Costa Rican varietal which known for high yields and
resistance to leaf rust fungus. This varietal considered to be the
child of Catimor. T8667 was introduced to Myanmar from Costa
Rica in the late 1980’s by the Government.
Costa Rican T8667 varietal is basically a sub-cultivar of
Catimor (developed in 1959 in Portugal to fight disease and
produce high yield, and is natural cross between robusta and
arabica - Caturra and Hybrido de Timor, from East Timor) known
as short plant with very big berries and seeds.
It was nice chatting with Philie about specialty coffee and
the future of coffee industry of Myanmar. I was able to help him
to understand the various processing methods and how they can
influence the cup. I have instructed him to try other processing
methods not known to him and provide me with feedback. All
coffees in Blue Mountain are shade grown and protected against
sun exposure. He also harvests macadamia nuts and reveled me
some interesting fact that apparently T8667 that grows under the
shade of macadamia nuts produces much sweeter cherry then
those that grows under regular trees.

GREEN LAND COFFEE PLANTATION

The last stop of coffee farm journey was Green Land Coffee
plantation. This farm started in 1999 with seeds imported from

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