Nepal: The National Tea and Coffee Development Board has hiked the minimum support price for fresh cherry coffee and parchment beans by Rs5 to Rs30 per kg to help farmers facing high production costs.
The new rates came into effect on
Friday.
Farmers now get Rs100 per kg for fresh
cherry ‘A’ grade coffee, up by Rs5 per kg. ‘A’ grade coffee needs to be
certified as organic and grown in 800 meters of height.
The price of fresh cherry ‘A’ was Rs50
per kg 10 years ago.
According to the board, the price of ‘B’
grade coffee has been fixed at Rs90 per kg, from Rs85 per kg earlier. ‘B’ grade
fresh cherries do not require organic certification.
The support price for parchment ‘A’
grade coffee has been hiked by Rs25 per kg to Rs500 per kg.
The ‘B’ grade parchment coffee now costs
Rs450 per kg, up by Rs30 per kg.
According to the board, ‘A’ grade
parchment coffee needs organic certification and also contains 11 percent
moisture.
Dried but unhulled coffee beans are
known as parchment coffee.
The price of ‘A’ grade dry cherries
dried in direct sunlight or through other processes with a moisture content of
11 percent has been fixed at Rs200 per kg, up by Rs30 per kg.
The minimum price of ‘B’ grade dry
cherry has been fixed at Rs150 per kg, up by Rs35 per kg.
The minimum support prices are
government-guaranteed prices for farmers' produce.
The support price is normally published
at the beginning of the sowing or flowering season.
“The minimum support price for fresh
cherries is fixed by taking into account the price sought by farmers and the
actual cost of production. When the price of fresh cherries is increased, the
price of all types of coffee increases automatically,” said Bishnu Bhattarai,
executive director of the National Tea and Coffee Development Board.
As there is a gap between production and
supply, and growing overseas demand for Nepali coffee, the minimum price has
been raised to encourage farmers to produce more, said Bhattarai.
“The new prices will ensure farmers 20
percent profit,” said Bhattarai.
Coffee is one of
Demand for Nepali coffee is high in the
country and abroad due to its organic content, good quality, taste and aroma as
the beans are grown in the highlands with almost no exposure to pesticides.
According to the coffee-genotype DNA sequencing research report released by the
EU-Nepal Trade and Investment Programme in January, Nepal is a Bourbon coffee
country as most coffee in Nepal is organically grown.
The report recommended that
According to the board, coffee is being
produced in 3,655 hectares. The area increased by over 300 hectares in the last
fiscal year from the previous fiscal.
The country produced 394 tonnes of green
coffee beans in the last fiscal year, up from 354.9 tonnes in the previous
fiscal year 2021-22, according to the board.
As demand for coffee grows domestically
and globally, farmers’ attraction towards cultivating it has increased, said
Bhattarai.
The export of coffee increased by 11.40
percent to 77.86 tonnes worth Rs130.44 million in the last fiscal year ended in
mid-July, compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year, the board
said.
Coffee has been listed as one of the
export commodities under the revised Nepal Trade Integrated Strategy, 2023 that
came into implementation in the current fiscal year.
According to the board,
The rising demand from coffee lovers and
the increase in the opening of coffee café outlets in the country swelled the
demand for coffee domestically too, the board said.
Coffee imports jumped 155 percent to
Rs325.86 million in the last fiscal year compared to the previous fiscal year.
Gulmi, Palpa, Arghakhanchi, Lalitpur,
Tanahun, Kavre, Sindhupalchok, Lamjung, Kaski, Gorkha, Syangja, Parvat and
Baglung are the major coffee producing districts.
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