Su Su Aung and her three sisters grew up in Shan State, Myanmar growing coffee, processing it in the traditional ways, and selling their coffee in the market at Aung Ban. Coffee first arrived in Shan State in the early 1930s, and some of the first to grow it were Su Su Aung’s grandparents who not only grew coffee themselves, but also bought coffee cherries from their neighbors and took them to the market together, hoping for better prices. Coffee has been a way of life for Su Su’s family for generations.
In 2004, Su Su began buying fresh cherries from local farmers and carrying them to market, carrying on her grandparents’ entrepreneurial spirit. When the buyers stopped purchasing fresh cherries, she taught herself how to do wet processing, and later bought a pulping machine and began producing 7,000-10,500 pounds of coffee per day during harvest season.
Then in 2010 the market was monopolized by a large company, driving down prices. “Even though I live here and I have all the resources such as land,” said Su Su, “I didn’t put my efforts into producing locally-sourced quality coffee widely - while (watching) other business people from outside Ywangan come to set up coffee and trading and processing here. We should have our own name as well as Ywangan local people.” That’s when Su Su and the other farmers from Ywangan began organizing themselves into a group to manage coffee prices in their market.
In 2014, Winrock International introduced Su Su’s family and many others to the idea of trying to produce specialty-grade coffee. Su Su said, “even though I pay a cup of coffee for 2,500 Kyat ($2 US) in Yangon, I didn’t know that we should upgrade our coffee quality for better prices, before.”
Su Su immediately implemented the newer methods, such as drying coffee on raised tables instead of on the ground, saying “I will try my best to produce specialty coffee even if I could manage only a (small) volume, such as a ton…” and the coffee in her region went from normal to very high specialty ratings in only a few months, resulting in the ability to export internationally for the first time and getting prices her grandparents could never have imagined possible for their coffee.
Su Su is continuing the legacy of her grandparents as a leader in her community, and recently founded the Amayar Women’s Coffee Group. “In the case of potential for our coffee market,” she says, “I am leading a women’s group that is working with six villages to produce specialty coffee to export to the US this next year. I believe that this will support the life of the people in Ywangan and increase the incomes of the farmers.”
The goal of the Amayar Women’s Coffee Group, which represents over 600 families, is to improve women’s capacity as coffee entrepreneurs, create new job opportunities for women, increase incomes, and improve technology accessed by women in the coffee business.
“I hope there will be more women in leadership positions in coffee.
We need more training, and growers need to know
that good prices will come with good coffee, if the quality is there.”
- Su Su Aung
A Brief History of Coffee in Myanmar:
Coffee was first introduced to Myanmar (also known as Burma) by missionaries in 1885, and primarily was planted in the south. Eventually though, coffee production moved north and arrived in the Shan highlands in the early 1930s, where production is concentrated in Mandalay and Northern and Southern Shan including the township of Ywangan.
The potential of Myanmar’s coffee was first discovered in 2013 by Rick Peyser of Vermont’s Green Mountain Coffee. In 2014, USAID’s Value Chains for Rural Development partnered with Winrock International to improve the quality of Burmese coffee and by 2016, Myanmar was producing some of the world’s highest-quality specialty Arabica coffee.
Early in 2016, Winrock International and the Coffee Quality Institute brought a group of international coffee buyers to Myanmar to visit the smallholder farms where coffee was being grown. “The pace of improvement in Burma has been unlike any other coffee-producing region where I’ve worked before,” said Andrew Hetzel of the Coffee Quality Institute. “They’ve been waiting for this opportunity. Burma has the potential and the drive to be on par with the best producer nations in the world.”
In June 2016, the first shipment of Burmese specialty coffee to be exported to the United States set sail. On Tuesday, August 23, it was ground, brewed, and poured at La Colombe in Washington, D.C.
“I’m thrilled to be celebrating the arrival of Myanmar Community Coffee in the U.S. The story of Burmese specialty coffee is the story of development’s power to change lives. This is the real thing, a perfect illustration of creating new opportunities for farmers and opening new markets for consumers.” -Winrock President and CEO Rodney Ferguson.
Justin Finnegan, deputy assistant to the administrator of USAID’s Bureau of Food Security, visited the Burmese towns and villages where coffee cherries were being processed and was present at the event on August 23. “This is an example of what can be done,” he said. “We rarely get to come from the field to an event like this and get to taste [the product] and see everyone excited.”
