It is the first time GAP certificates have been issued to a coffee business in Myanmar and represents a meaningful step forward for the country’s coffee export industry.

Since submitting applications for the GAP certificates in 2017-18, four State-owned coffee farms and two private farms have been provided with the certificates, Daw May Thet Hlaing said.

“Coffee growers who applied for certificates were trained at the department to be in compliance with GAP standards. Certificates will be issued to the six farms that qualified and will be valid for one year,” Daw May Thet Hlaing said.

In fact, more than 20 coffee growers had applied for the certificate. “To qualify for the certificate, we need to make sure everything used in the planting of our coffee, from water supply, fertilisers, pesticides, seed quality and even the cleanliness of staff quarters meets the GAP standards,” said U Min Hlaing, one of the farmers who received the GAP certificate.

Ko Sai Wan, another Pyi Oo Lwin coffee farmer, was less successful. “We applied for the GAP certificate but did not qualify for it. To comply with GAP is to ensure quality standards in all the raw materials and processes involved in farming,” he said.

Meanwhile, farmers like U Min Hlaing can look forward to better international awareness over Myanmar coffee. “Things will be better now that we have gone beyond a local certificate to a globally-recognised one,” he said.

International interest in local coffee has already been rising. Myanmar coffee ranked second out of 48 other countries in terms of quality and taste at a coffee exhibition in China last November.

Over the past four years, local coffee bean prices have risen by about 28pc, reaching K45 lakh per tonne this year. Myanmar coffee is currently exported at prices ranging between $4,000 and $7,000 per tonne, depending on quality.

Source: https://www.mmtimes.com/news/myanmars-first-coffee-growers-receive-gap-certificates.html