Shwe Taung Thu Farmers Group

We’re really proud to be in our second year of working directly with the farmers group Shwe Taung Thu, which translates to ‘Golden Farmer’. The group is made up of Danu and Pa-O smallholder farmers who are producing specialty coffee in the Ywangan area of Southern Shan State, in the east part of Myanmar. The group provides leadership, finance, technical assistance and market linkages for its members with the objective of bringing fairer trade conditions for its coffees.

Coffees produced by Shwe Taung Thu are named after the villages where the coffee is grown and processed. Each community has its own working group which is responsible for managing the processing of the coffee within each village. The focus is exclusively on producing dry naturals – the climate and terroir is particularly suited to this process, with very dry heat during the harvest season providing excellent conditions for drying.

Myin Kya Doe is named after the village in which this coffee is grown which comprises of 450 households.  The production of this coffee is managed by a core group of around 10 members and this is the fourth year they have produced specialty coffee.

Processing information

Ripe cherries are picked and delivered to a central collection point in the village. This is then hand sorted by villagers, retaining the best cherry and removing under and over ripe fruits. The cherries are then spread out to dry on raised beds. Dry milling takes place through a local exporter.

This is an exceptionally clean and bright natural process coffee, which really reflects this community’s meticulous attention to detail and dedication to producing the best quality coffee possible.