#POPPYTOCOFFEE

Hopong Shan State

As coffee roasters, our most vital work lies in supporting the ground-breaking progress of Myanmar's remarkable coffee farmers. In Hopong, Southern Shan, a movement that Sawbwa Coffee Co. has supported from it's inception is picking up global traction...

On Indigo Mountain

Our most treasured bean, Bant Sawk, comes from remote Hopong, high in the Shan Hills.

The villagers of Bant Sawk derive the majority of their income from the farming of poppies, characteristic of the ‘Golden Triangle’s’ illicit trade in opiates.

In line with national and regional developments, the village is committed to ending their reliance on the cultivation of poppies: following the lauded example of Thailand, the community have begun transitioning to the farming of specialty coffee.

 

 

Future Coffee Now!

For the past two years, Sawbwa has invested in the village to help develop specialty-grade processing infrastructure. We feel Hopong is one of Myanmar’s most promising coffee growing regions.

In 2019, our pre-financing of the Indigo Mountain Cooperative allowed the group to establish a new office in Hopong, and vastly increase processing facilities - seeing the cooperative grow from two to six farms.

This year - at the village’s third specialty coffee harvest - SCAA tasters graded Bant Sawk’s beans the best in the entire country - a score of 89.25 is the highest ever awarded to a Myanmar bean.

With this progress, Myanmar coffee has quickly been elevated to some of the most interesting and highly sought after in the world - the remaining harvests of our partner farms have been purchased by specialty coffee shops the world over.

# Next year, many more poppy fields will be converted to coffee plantations #