THE AMATA STORY
Amata Community Coffee Farms, or "Amata" for short, is a project to help bring Southern Thai coffee farmers into the specialty coffee market by building the infrastructure required to produce quality coffee. More specifically, we are focusing on not only bringing back farming of much needed Robusta coffee back to Lamae, a small town located in Chumphon Province in Southern Thailand, but to also elevate the quality of the bean for the specialty coffee market.
A Tale of Two Coffees
Even though coffee has been grown in Thailand for more than a hundred years, the country is known more for its island getaways, lively nightlife, and delicious cuisine. But its status as a coffee origin is not widely known and it only became a coffee exporter in the mid-1970s, mainly selling Robusta. At the same time initiatives during the 1970s and 1980s promoted the cultivation of Arabica coffee in Northern highlands as a substitute crop for notorious opium, especially in areas bordering Burma (now Myanmar) and Laos. With a slump in world market prices and a domestic oversupply in the early 1990s, the Thai government encouraged farmers to switch to other crops.
As market prices ticked up in the early 2000s due to increasing demand, villages in Northern provinces again turned to coffee as a cash crop. With higher elevation and a more temperate tropical climate, the cultivation of Arabica in this region expanded, benefitting many village communities that include indigenous hill tribes. Over time the Northern coffee community became well-established, producing high-scoring cup quality Arabica.
The story is different in the South. Chumphon - the provincial gateway to Southern Thailand - was once considered the Thai capital of coffee, where an internationally renowned coffee company operated, manufacturing mostly ready-to-drink and instant coffee.
Lamae - the most southern town of Chumphon province - also played a major role in the once vibrant coffee industry. One could see endless coffee farms lined up and down small road of villages in the area. But declining coffee prices and high production costs led to a significant reduction of coffee farms, and were replaced by more lucrative cash crops such as durian, para rubber, and oil palm.
THE ISSUE
Robusta: The Underdog Bean
The price for Robusta hasn’t improved over the years. Robusta coffee farmers remain the most vulnerable group in the world’s coffee supply chain. Farmers trained to use harvesting and processing methods that result in lower quality bean continue to do so. Today, even with the global demand for coffee remaining high, especially in light of recent shortages, the Lamae smallholder coffee farmer struggles to find a fair market price for their crop. Sometimes there is no market at all because a larger and distant agriculture co-op buys only from their own farmers of the same town, leaving the Lamae coffee farmer to fend for himself or herself, often taking a loss for the year.
This leaves them at the mercy of large industrial buyers who purchase their crop at prices sometimes far below the cost of growing, only to have it turned into instant coffee (often consumed by coffee farmers too). With little or no further initiative from neither the private sector nor the government, Robusta seems destined to stay in the lower-end instant coffee market with farmers having to pay the price of growing it.
The Comeback Kids
There is, however, a group of Lamae smallholder farmers who have a genuine love for the coffee tree and wish there was a way out of this rut. More to this point is that these Robusta coffee farmers have maintained sustainable farming practices.
Look around and you see coffee trees intercropped with native evergreens, banana trees for shade; groundnuts for nitrogen-fixing; and fruit trees for nutrient-enrichment. When a forest-like ecosystem like this is created, there is opportunity to grow exceptional coffee.
THE SOLUTION
A community wet mill at Amata will provide these farmers with the tools they need to thrive. And thrive they will when they can raise the quality of their raw coffee and gain access to the specialty market.
Wet mills are crucial in the labor-intensive coffee production process. Once harvested coffee cherries are floated in water to remove defective fruit and hulled where the outer layer is removed before being fermented and dried in their thin inner shell to make what we call parchment coffee. It is from this parchment coffee that we extract coffee beans that get roasted, ground, and made into your favorite cup of Joe. This process is known as the wash or wet process, involves multiple steps over a few weeks and is the preferred method to produce quality raw coffee. Being able process coffee cherries immediately after harvesting creates more stable cash flow throughout the 3-4 months-long season.
Similar coffee huller and drying beds for the community wet mill and processing hub. Photos by Petchsri Wassun and The Coffeenery
As a side note the word amata in Thai is defined as eternal or immortal, implying a rebirth and transformation into a new existence, which is what we hope will happen to the Southern Thai coffee farming community.
LET'S MEET A FEW OF THE FARMERS
A Farmer’s Story
Going by her nickname, Oi, which means sugarcane in Thai, is one of many farmers that grows coffee inter-cropped with durian and other fruit trees. She’s happy she doesn’t have to use pesticides and can spend all day in the field picking coffee cherries. That’s how much she loves growing coffee. But she would also love the world to know that coffee from her village was once known as a major regional coffee producer, and would like to be able to make a stable income from her coffee.
A Farmer’s Insight
As one of the community’s farmers, Kai, said, “Before when someone came over to visit, you’d gather everyone around to eat. These days, you just offer them a cup of coffee. I believe there is a future for growing coffee.”
He may not possess the cupping expertise of a worldly coffee aficionado, but he has experienced the challenges of growing coffee and how it is often used as a political hot potato to which the farmer can be made vulnerable. He would like to learn more about what makes a good cup of coffee and the market for it.
More of Our Farmers
Kai
You kind of already met him in the “A Farmer’s Insight” section above. We know him as Uncle Kai, although not related. His farm is about a mile (1.6km) up a hill from the main village. He was the first of our neighbors to jump on board because it’s been a struggle to find a place to sell his coffee. He knows how to grow coffee, but he’s willing to learn better harvesting methods if there’s a market for it. Uncle Kai is also a representative of surrounding villages. He’s encouraged about the prospects, “If you young ones take charge, I’ll rally all the folks in this area to do the same.”
Sen
Also known in our village as Grandma Sen, she grew coffee for many years and can tell you the hardships she and her family went through growing it back in the 1990s when prices tanked. Her family has been able to survive growing other cash crops, but she’s been replanting coffee to diversify her income. She wants to give it another go and hopes her daughter, Bell - who is also a key team member - will learn as much as possible about making good coffee and take over the reins of the family farm.
Kanong
As a native of Chumphon and having settled in Lamae some 40 years ago, Kanong had always bought instant coffee made with locally grown Robusta. This is how he though coffee is supposed to taste like. It was his go to beverage every morning at 430am. It wasn’t until recently that he tasted how better a coffee his own trees could produce. We took a sample of his latest crop; processed it using the preferred wet method, hand-roasted it, and brought it back for him to try. He now understands why raw coffee prices are so low for the grower. As a farmer he’s going to make sure his coffee is wet-processed so his coffee meets the highest quality possible.
THE TEAM
And then, there’s us - Bell, Jay and Teddee. We’ve been part of the generational farming family. It’s kind of easy to be since most of Southern Thailand is largely involved in agriculture.
Bell joined us in early 2021 and has helped us streamline the processing of farm-grown products for distribution abroad. She is the go-to person when it comes to slicing, drying and packing ancient and native ingredients used in Thai cooking. Her family grew coffee in the 1990s and understands the challenges farmers have experienced throughout the years. Her face lit up when we brought up the opportunity to help the region’s coffee farming community. Bell’s deep connections with members of the general farming community have helped to generate excitement about a community wet mill.
Jay grew up in Lamae, Chumphon before completing college in Bangkok, from where she then took off to the U.S. to gain work experience on both the East and West coasts. As a kid she remembers seeing coffee trees lined up in vast rows while dad drove up and down the hills of Lamae. After spending several years abroad, she felt it was time to return to Lamae and give back to the community, especially the farming families whose income is affected by price fluctuations of various crops grown in the region. Coffee farmers are the most vulnerable and she wants to find a way to help stabilize their income and improve their way of life.
Teddee was born in the U.S. and grew up aware of the challenges her immigrant Thai parents faced settling in American society. It instilled a sense wanting to learn about her heritage and to find ways to help bridge the socio-economic gap prevalent in a fast-changing, decades-long development of a country like Thailand. After moving to Thailand a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic hit to live and work in Lamae, Chumphon, she learned about the economic struggles and challenges the Southern Thai coffee farming community has had to endure. Teddee is now aiming to help find new markets for their crop and hoping it will strengthen the farming community.
Leo, the resident Jack Russell Terrier, was born in mid-2020. He joins us in the coffee fields and helps us keep red ants off our boots and pants.
Even though we previously led separate lives living in big cities like Bangkok, Boston, and Los Angeles, we all kind of converged here back in Southern Thailand and found a common purpose in coffee. That is why we, the team at Nana Solutions, are spearheading this project for the coffee farming community and their families.
HOW YOU CAN BE PART OF THE SOLUTION
We’re raising an initial $15,000 for a wet mill where farmers can process their coffee harvest, and receive training and education to produce quality beans. This will help farmers gain access to new markets, such as the specialty coffee market, where they can compete and earn a fair price for their beans.
What is the potential impact of your support?
The wet mill and resulting improved bean quality will not only benefit the farmers, but also the entire community. Your support will help:
- Empower farmers to negotiate better prices
- Provide a stable source of income for their families
- Attract more coffee buyers and create more jobs
- Reduce loss of resources as farmers will have a place to sell their crop nearby
- Preserve the coffee-growing traditions of Southern Thailand and support sustainable agricultural practices
ENDORSEMENTS
REWARDS FOR YOUR SUPPORT
Of course, we don't want you to just feel good about contributing to a good cause. We also want you to become a part of the Amata community and be able to enjoy what what you have helped make happen. The least we can do is to reward you with the following.
Learn more about what goes into some of these rewards here in REWARDS DETAILS.
A BIGGER OPPORTUNITY TO EMPOWER THAI COFFEE FARMERS
You have the opportunity to bring out the true philanthropist in you. You 100% believe in empowering Thai coffee farmers and wish to make a straight contribution without receiving a reward.
Despite the issues they've been facing, our farmers are steadfast and see a future in coffee. They want to learn new techniques to produce higher quality coffee so they can make better decisions for themselves, their families, and the community at large. Help them have a say at the table by clicking here.
However you decide to support the Thai coffee farmer and are ready to help build a wet mill, click here to make a contribution and become part of the Amata Community!