People in the Danu community of Yay Chan Pyin have been growing coffee for four generations, but until 2015 they sold their coffee on the internal market at low prices. They began participating in quality improvement trainings in 2015, and like many of the producers in Myanmar, their quality improved at a dramatic rate.
Most of the coffee here is Catuai, which is grown at 1,534 masl and picked by the growers themselves. It is then dried on raised beds, which producers built out of locally-sourced bamboo. The meticulous care they put into growing and harvesting great coffee continues during drying, as people constantly comb through the cherry, removing any beans that might diminish cup quality. They intercrop tea and coffee and “Yay Chan Pyin” means broad cool water, as a mountain spring near the village supplies coffee for 16 surrounding villiages in the Ywa Ngan area.
The producers here are reinvesting coffee profits into their community, with plans in the works for a library, a social welfare team, a monastery, improved health services and educational resources.
Coffee Stats:
- GPS: 21.26746, 96.44195
- Elevation (masl): 1,534
- Ethnic Group: Danu
- Coffee-producing families: 200 (10 members working group)
- Coffee varietial(s): 80% Catuai
- Average coffee yield: 1,600 (kg fresh cherries/acre)
- Est. Production 2019 16MT / 50 x 60kg bags