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By Benjamin Malcolm
On any given day, Lanna Cafe in Chiang Mai is a busy place. There
is the hum of conversation of businesspeople and local teachers,
students taking a break from their classes and tourists, all to
the accompanying whir of the cappuccino machine steadily churning
out lattes, au laits and strong-brewed coffees to its patrons.
The walls of this little cafe nook are covered in coffee history.
Colourful charts explain the process of roasting beans, the history
of the cafe and other coffee-related trivia. Filters and coffee
plungers line the shelves, fighting for space with northern hill-tribe
produced dolls and purses. And, as the seeming centrepiece in a
refrigerator next to the counter, are row upon row of green, red,
white and silver coffee bags, cooled locally-produced ground and
ungrounded beans sorted by blend.
What is not as easily seen is the potential trend that this caf?
represents. For sure, it is only one of many chic coffeehouses opening
about this northern city, but the even greater force that lies behind
all this is the slow but steady growth of Northern-grown Arabica
coffee, especially hill-tribe grown coffee with an eco-friendly
theme.
For years, Thailand's coffee industry has been a southern-ruled
affair, with coffee plantations located primarily in the highlands
of the Isthmus of Kra. The north has always been a backwater world
in coffee terms, with a few scattered farms here and there in the
mountains. Arabica, which accounts for about 70% of the world's
coffee, is more difficult to grow. Southern Thailand, which grows
approximately 80,000 tons of coffee a year, specializes in Robusta,
which grows well in low altitudes, but is also considered lower
quality.
But there are signs of change.
"In the first year, we sold two tons of beans; the second
year, 4-5 tons," explained Project Manager Thirawat Keawdang
of his organization's recent success. "This year, we've already
sold 15 tons."
And where is this increased production coming from? In Lanna Caf?'s
case, from hill tribe growers, under the auspices of the Thai Tribal
Highland Arabica Coffee Production and Marketing Cooperative, certified
by the FLO (Fair-trade Labelling Organizations International). Lanna
Caf? is not only a restaurant; it is an NGO, providing assistance
to hill tribe participants, providing them with direct access to
a market.
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If things do happen in the north, it will be because of organizations
like Lanna Caf?, who are introducing coffee growing methods to villages
all over the north. They have surely taken their cue from Thailand's
Royal Family and the U.N., which have since the 1970's focused efforts
on eradicating opium production in the north and replacing it with
alternatives such as coffee. The popular Thai-owned Black Canyon
Coffee franchise blazed a trail when it opened its doors in 1993,
by using royal agricultural project coffee from Chiang Rai (almost
70-80% of its beans come from this source). The franchise has been
so successful that it has since gone international and Northern
Thai coffee beans are finding their way to Black Canyon outlets
in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
In Chiang Rai, Doi Tung features locally-grown coffee, while in
Mae Hong Son, a coffee-growing village (Ban Ruam Thai) exists side-by-side
with a Chinese tea-growing village (Ban Rak Thai) in the mountains.
The villages of Chiang Mai have the reputation for the best coffee,
said Keawdang, because they have had the most experience with it.
He explained that of the 300 tons produced per year in Northern
Thailand, only one percent is hand-selected to produce top-quality
coffee.
"The higher the land, the better the taste of the coffee,"
said Keawdang. "But villagers at that elevation don't take
care of it so well."
Keawdang said that suppliers with Lanna Caf? range all over the
north including villages in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Mae Hong Son
and Lampang. He said that the rise in coffee shops is not only through
the increased availability of northern coffee beans, but the perceived
ease in opening businesses of that nature. Coffee shops are relatively
easy to open, costing less than restaurants and thus more people
are inclined to open them. He said that a coffee shop is regarded
as a classic thing and Thais are increasingly inclined toward both
consuming fresh coffee and visiting coffee shops. Starbucks has
been active for years in the middle of the Night Bazaar and shows
no signs of declining in business.
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Coffee is a high-demand industry and most of Southeast Asia is
renowned for Robusta. Vietnam is the top producer in Southeast Asia.
Indeed, it is one of the top producers of coffee beans in the world,
outputting an amount that ranks it third behind Brazil and Colombia.
Landlocked Laos is also vying for its piece of the Southeast Asian
coffee economic pie, but lacks infrastructure and easy trade routes
to move its exports. Nevertheless, bags of locally-roasted Laotian
coffee appear in many of the upscale coffee shops in Vientiane and
Luang Prabang.
Thailand ranks third in Southeast Asia behind Vietnam and Indonesia,
but has not developed a reputation for its coffee and often struggles
with quality control. In 2002, according to a Thai Customs report,
almost all of the country's exports headed to two countries - Poland
and Malaysia. Thailand began exporting coffee in 1976 and there
was steady growth until the early 1990's. A slump in world coffee
prices and a decision in the mid-1990's by the Thai government to
encourage coffee farmers to switch to other crops (under a 5-year
plan) to counter potential oversupply curtailed that initial boom
and export numbers have been up and down since then.
While more and more coffee shops are opening every day in Thailand,
there is still a preponderance of instant coffee, canned coffee
(which counts Robusta beans as its source) and even smaller street-side
coffee shops which produce the sugary coffee concoction of O-Leang.
Coffee purists may balk at these, but they still satisfy a large
number of the populace.
In the end, the growth of Thai coffee, in the north and elsewhere,
may be determined by how much this aspect of common life changes
as by anything else, fostering the domestic consumption of fresh
top-quality coffee while building an ever-increasing awareness and
demand for Thai coffee overseas.
Chiang Mai's upscale coffee shops, like Lanna Cafe, are staking
their future on it.
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