Shwe Taung Thu farmers group, which translates to ‘Golden Farmer’, is made up of Danu and Pa-O smallholder farmers who are producing specialty coffee in the Ywangan area of Southern Shan State, in the east part of Myanmar. The group provides leadership, finance, technical assistance and market linkages for its members with the objective of bringing fairer trade conditions for its coffees.
Coffees produced by Shwe Taung Thu are named after the villages where the coffee is grown and processed. Each community has its own working group which is responsible for managing the processing of the coffee within each village. The focus is exclusively on producing dry naturals – the climate and terroir is particularly suited to this process, with very dry heat during the harvest season providing excellent conditions for drying.
Pha Yar Gyi Kone is named after the village in which this coffee is grown which comprises of 200 Danu households. The group has donated some of their profits from last season’s coffees to the local school.
Background
Myanmar, also called Burma, is located in the western portion of main land Southeast Asia. In 1989 the country’s official English name, which it had held since 1885, was changed from the Union of Burma to the Union of Myanmar; in the Burmese language the country has been known as Myanma (more precisely, Mranma Prañ) since the 13th century.
Myanmar is bordered to its north and northeast by China, to its east by Laos and Thailand, and its west by Bangladesh and India. Myanmar possesses the largest expanse of tropical forest in main land Southeast Asia with substantial biodiversity, harbouring rare species such as the red panda and the Myanmar snub-nosed monkey. Climate and terroir are perfect for coffee cultivation in various parts of the country, particularly in the Shan hills which stretch into the coffee growing regions of Yunnan and Thailand.
Myanmar has been growing coffee since the late 1800s, introduced by British colonists. Following Myanmar’s independence in 1948, a concerted drive to produce coffee occurred much later during the political reforms of 2011, when agricultural growth was encouraged as part of the government's opium eradication programme. The subsequent opening up of its economy led to the increased focus on coffee as a commercial crop. Specialty coffee production commenced from 2015, supported by development initiatives from Winrock Foundation, USAID and CQI, with the first specialty coffees exported to the USA in 2016 (Atlas) and to the UK in 2017, including Indochina Coffee’s first shipment.
