We’ve long known that Myanmar makes some pretty damn good coffee. And, soon, so will the world: US supermarket giant Whole Foods plans to stock single origin Myanmar brew.
Two containers stocked with 600 60kg bags of Arabica beans – the first commercial-scale shipments in more than 15 years – arrived stateside this month, according to Reuters.
World Foods Market snapped up 41 from the Seattle-based Atlas Coffee Importers while La Colombe took 10.
“It will be sold as single origin and as special coffee that we’re offering,” Darrin Daniel from Whole Foods subsidiary Allegro Coffee Company told Reuters.
Coffee exports were, understandably, limited under the former ruling military junta. When 17 60kg bags were shipped out in 2015, it was the first such deal since 2000.
Those have been selling well, according to Myanmar-born Melvin Tan from Texas-based Irrawaddy Coffee Roasters, who took 10 of the bags.
“I’m down to 1-1/12 bags,” he told Reuters. “I would say… I’m going to more than triple it this year from last year.”
So where is this delicious bean coming from? Opium farmers. Well, sort of.
Two years ago, government aid agency USAID started funding farmers to boost the quality of their beans, while the UNODC began a program at around the same time to encourage opium farms to swap the illicit crop for coffee.
It’s working, judging from the responses of US roaster James Tooil from La Colombe, who told Reuters that so long as the quality is sustained after USAID funding dries up in 2019, the outlook is good.
“The ability for it to run once the initial investment is over is a crucial turning point.”
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