Page 69 - #51 English

No matter where you are
in the world, the coffee
beans will have
the same quality.

we had to make sure the whole process is
good because only quality product will get
a good price,” Pichai said. From that state-
ment, we can see Doi Chang Coffee isn’t
here just to do business, but it is here to
support coffee community as well.
Researches on coffee processing
were done to get everything on par with
the world standard. Small plots of coffee
farm were developed and the product
was send to be cup tested. At the same
time, Doi Chang opened its first coffee
shop to test its coffee. The shop received
tremendously positive feedback from
consumers and the coffee was graded
specialty coffee from the cup test. “It was
a real confidence boost that our coffee has
the quality we wanted. Our business is
similar to cooperative model because we
want to improve the quality of life of coffee
farmers. We can’t play the capitalist role.
Instead, we just pass on the coffee from
coffee farmers to the market and let them
grow naturally without being taken advan-
tage of. After reaching the desired quality,
we tried to fill in any missing knowledge
by sending our people to Brazil, Colombia,
and Jamaica to learn more,” Panachai said.
In 1997, western coffee brands made
their way into Thailand and introduced
new kind of coffee to Thai consumers.
Most Thai people believe that imported
coffees are better, and the idea motivated
Doi Chang Coffee to push itself internatio-
nally. “Me, Adele, and Wicha got together
to talk about how Thai consumers thinks
imported coffees are always good coffee.
We opened our shops to introduce our
coffee to the market, and we go to events
and exhibitions, but the feedback weren’t
that great, making it hard for us to move
forward. In 2006, we established a joint
venture company with a Canadian busi-
nessman in Vancouver. The new company
focuses on oversea marketing and import-
ing back into Thailand. In parallel to over-
seas markets, marketing was also done in
Thailand and Doi Chang Coffee attracted
a lot of indy café clients.”
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