Coffee holding a promising future

OCT 22 -

No sooner Padam Bahadur KC wakes up at the crack of dawn every day he scurries to the kitchen, makes coffee in a small-sized kettle and sips a cup of it. Sometimes in the daytime he washes down snacks with coffee. The coffee his family members regularly drink is produced in Nepal and organic. A coffee connoisseur, KC is also brand-conscious. Even as famous international brands like Nescafé have flooded the local market, he sticks to ‘Syangja Special Coffee ’, an organic variety produced in Syangja district. He encourages others too into drinking the local varieties of coffee, which has emerged as a promising cash crop in recent times.

“I prefer domestic coffee to foreign because of the organic factor. I have read that organic coffee reduces heart and diabetes risks, wards off skin cancer and protects liver,” says KC. Not only that, the ‘Made in Nepal’ brand gaining in international stature has prompted people like KC and Nepali diaspora to promote coffee grown in their home country.

Gyanendra Rokaha is witness to the growing popularity of Nepal-grown coffee abroad. A restaurateur in the Japanese capital of Tokyo and a native of Pokhara, Rokaha has been serving Nepal-made coffee to Japanese and foreigners for the past 10 years. Nepali coffee is well-liked here, emails KC from Japan, one of the major coffee-consuming countries. 

Global glory

The ‘Made in Nepal’ coffee is slowly making a name for itself in the international market, thanks to its supreme taste and aroma. Though commercial farming of coffee started in the country only in mid-1970s, coffee beans and dust reached the global market after 2003.

Known as speciality coffee in the international market, Nepali aromatic brew is popular in Japan, South Korea, the US, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, says Shyam Thapa, a coffee exporter. The country also exports coffee to Canada, Belgium, Sweden, Italy, Bangladesh, Australia, Finland, Jordan, Taiwan, UAE and Cambodia in small quantities. 

Among these countries, Japan is the largest importer of Nepali coffee, according to the Trade and Export Promotion Centre (TEPC) under the Ministry of Commerce. In the fiscal year 2011-12, the country exported coffee worth Rs 50 million to Japan.

The fact that 60 percent of the country’s total annual production—418.4 metric tonnes—

is being exported to foreign countries bears testimony to the soaring popularity of Nepali coffee. “Among all exportable agro products produced in Nepal, coffee is the only product that has put the country on the global map,” says Thapa. 

“As a result of surging demand for the Himalayan coffee abroad, exporters are having a tough time dealing with importers. According to the TEPC, the country exported coffee to the tune of Rs 93 million in the last fiscal year and exports are increasing every year.

Even heads of state are singing the praises of Nepali coffee. Recently, French President François Hollande was fulsome in his compliments about Nepali coffee. In a letter to the Paris-based Embassy of Nepal, he gave full marks to the organic coffee produced in Nepal. In 2010, Nepali coffee had stood second among 80 coffee producers in a grading exercise in Germany. 

Ballooning domestic market 

Local coffee is in high demand in the domestic market. Out of the total production, 167.36 metric tonnes (40 percent) is consumed locally, says the National Tea and Coffee Development Board (NTCDB). The local consumption was below 100 metric tonnes until a few years ago. 

Even as coffee is not considered part of traditional culture in Nepal, more people are drinking it. A conservative estimate of retailers suggests that 300kg of coffee is consumed daily in the country, mainly in cities. The mushrooming of coffee cafes is further promoting the coffee culture. Hundreds of coffee cafes with several outlets have sprung up in major cities, including Kathmandu and Pokhara. 

The popular ones are Himalayan Java, Coffee Talk Nepal, Himalaya Beanz, Magic Beanz, Annapurna Coffee Shop, Road House Café and Swodeshi Coffee Shop to name a few. Like other shops, the Swodeshi cafe buys coffee beans grown only in the country. Its owner Madhav Adhikari says the domestic market has expanded in such a way that many people from all walks of life have become coffee lovers now. “If this trend picks up, coffee can be one of the mainstream beverages in Nepal too like in the US and Europe,” says Adhikari. 

More takers

There are around 28,000 coffee farmers in Nepal at present, an increase by 21,000 from four years ago, according to the NTCDB. Syangja, the largest coffee producing district in the country, has 3,001 farmers who produce around 48,000kg of coffee annually, according to the District Coffee Entrepreneurs Association. Four years ago, there were around 1,600 farmers. 

An increasing number of farmers are taking up coffee farming as traditional crops such as millet, maize, wheat give less returns and their cultivation process is arduous too, says Bodhraj Aryal, owner of Shanti Coffee Nursery and a leading coffee farmer in Syangja.Coffee has found more takers with the other benefits that neither heavy rainfall nor dry weather hit the plants, he says. 

So far 39 highland districts, including Syangja, Gulmi, Palpa, Arghakhanchi, Lalitpur, Tanahun, Sindhupalchowk, Lamjung, Kaski, Gorkha, Parbat and Baglung, among others, are producing coffee in the commercial way. Some other districts such as Tanahun, Gorkha, Lamjung, Kaski, Sindhupalchowk are getting on the bandwagon and have a bright prospect of becoming ‘coffee districts’. 

A host of challenges 

Even as the coffee sector holds out hope of revenue surge and more foreign currency earning, it faces a lot of challenges. Many farmers lack technical know-how about planting, weeding, fertilising, pruning, spraying and harvesting of red cherry. Coffeeproduction is based on traditional farming methods as advanced agricultural technologies are still few and far between, says Aryal. Farmers often complain lack of necessary support from the government agencies concerned and proper coordination among dealers, marketers and exporters. 

Compared to other coffee-producing countries, Nepal’s export is very low, says Thapa. “We are yet to gain a foothold in the international market.” Experts and farmers say, among other things, labour-intensive farming, small-scale production, high per unit production cost, are holding them back.