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Origin
Story and Photos by Coffee t&i Thailand

Doi Chang Coffee

Taking Thai Coffee to the World

The strong commitment to build a sustainable business was the beginning of
the internationally renowned Thai coffee brand, Doi Chang Coffee. In this edition
of CTI, we had an opportunity to talk to Mr.Pitsanuchai Kaewpichai, Chief Advisor
of Doi Chang Coffee Original Co.,Ltd. and Mr. Panachai Pisailert (Adele), Managing
Director of Doi Chang Coffee Original Co.,Ltd. and learn how Doi Chang began
from a humble beginning to become an international brand, and where will it go
from here.
The Beginning
“Doi Chang was full of poppy fields until the Royal Project started. The King
brought good coffee varietals in to try growing them here. Early productions were very
low and the farmers were running into trouble because they couldn’t find the market for
their product. In 2002, Adele (Napachai) was a village leader who couldn’t stand
seeing coffee farmers getting unfair price for their coffee. He wanted to see coffee farmers
treated fairly, and so he consulted Mr.Wicha Promyong, and Wicha came to talk to me
about finding a solution for the farmers,” Pitsanuchai explained how the 3 partners
got together to develop the brand.

With the commitment to help coffee farmers, the 3 partners focus on develop-
ing the quality of existing product in order to raise the price and gain price advan-
tage above the middleman. They did an extensive research on coffee processing
methods as processing technique is the key to quality control. “Thai people didn’t
care about quality at all. The supply chain was very superficial. Farmers grow the coffee,
then the middlemen buy the coffee and profit from it. That’s it. We didn’t look at it that
way because we wanted to help coffee farmers improve their lives. In order to do that,
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