“Coffee is produced in 170 hectares of land and around 200 metric tons of coffee is produced in a year and is increasing every year,” said Premnidhi Dhakal, technician of the regional office of National Tea and Coffee Development Board (NTCDB) in Pokhara. [break]
Coffee is produced in Parbat, Baglung, Gulmi, Argakhanchi, Syangja, Kaski, Tanahun, Lamjung, Gorkha and Myagdi districts of the region.
More farmers were switching to coffee farming due to growing demands and subsequent rise in prices. The region has developed into a center for organic coffee production in recent years.
“I have expanded the plantation area and have planted 500 more saplings. Now I have around 2,000 coffee plants,” said Indra Gauchan of Kaski.
Farmers of Parbat had started planting coffee on hill sides leading to increased production in the district 15 tons from 10 tons last year. In nearby Syangja district, farmers were pooling in their resources under the leadership of Raj Bahadur Gurung and have planted around 8,500 saplings in 850 ropanis of land.
Around 29,000 farmers were involved in coffee production in the western region. Coffee produced in this region is exported to Japan, America, Korea and the UK by Everest Coffee Mill, Highland Coffee, Gulmi cooperative and Parbat Organic Coffee Cooperative among others.
According to NTCDB, coffee production has increased not only in western region but in other areas as well due to which the total production has reached 401 tons.
Raman Prasad Pathak, executive director of NTCDB said that the production had increased because the plantation area had increased and greater number of farmers were involved. According to statistics coffee was planted in around 1,752 hectares of land this year, up from 1,630 hectares last year.
“Higher rate of return and lucrative markets overseas were the major factors that have attracted farmers to coffee,” said Shyam Prasad Bhandari, chairman of Nepal Coffee Producers Association.
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