Kavre, Lalitpur and Syangja lead in commercial coffee farming

Kathmandu, July 2

A survey conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) shows that Kavrepalanchowk, Lalitpur and Syangja are the districts that are most involved in commercial coffee farming in the country.

The survey report titled ‘Nepal Commercial Coffee Farming Survey 2017-18’ published by CBS states that commercial coffee farming is being practised in 32 districts across the country at the moment. Of them, the aforementioned three districts are top three districts to practice commercial coffee farming.

As mentioned in the report, coffee farming in Kavrepalanchowk covers 104.3 hectares of land while in Lalitpur and Syangja a total of 96.3 and 94.1 hectares of land, respectively has been utilised for coffee farming.

In Kavrepalanchowk, there are 943 coffee farms, while in Syangja there are 708 coffee farms. Likewise, in Lalitpur there are a total of 528 coffee farms involved in commercial coffee farming. Altogether, there are a total of 6,346 coffee farms in the country.

The report further mentions that around 1,573.6 tonnes of coffee beans are produced annually across the country. As per the report, around 1.2 million hectares of land in the country is suitable for coffee cultivation, with 820,364 hectares moderately suitable, 402,646 hectares suitable and 61,228 hectares highly suitable for coffee cultivation.

Meanwhile, a total of 113 employees are permanently employed and around 42,484 employees are working on per day payment, the report added.

The report further mentions that around 50 per cent of farmers are aware about the government’s policies and programmes regarding coffee farming in the country. Similarly, most of the farms are practising traditional way of coffee farming. Hence, the report has concluded with recommendations of organising awareness activities, conducting skill training and providing technical knowledge to the farmers.

Responding to the report of CBS, Deepak Khanal, acting executive director of National Tea and Coffee Development Board, said that they are working on increasing commercial coffee farming in the country.

“In recent years, coffee culture has been growing rapidly in Nepal. Moreover, Nepal is suitable not only for tea but for coffee as well,” he said, “So, to boost up the industry, we have to come up with some strategic plans and implement them.”

While most of the coffee produced in the country is being consumed domestically, Nepali coffee has high demand in the international market too.

Japan, the United States and European countries are the largest markets of Nepali coffee.