Kathmandu, November 16

The Nepal Tea and Coffee Development Board (NTCDB) has fixed the support price of coffee for the ongoing fiscal year effective from Saturday.

Amid a programme organised to mark the 14th National Coffee Day today, the board fixed the support price of the product in various stages of processing to ensure that farmers get the right price for their produce.

According to NTCDB, the price of Fresh Cherry ‘A’ grade coffee (organic certified) has been fixed at Rs 85 per kg while ‘B’ grade coffee (organic uncertified) has been fixed at Rs 80 per kg. Price of such ‘A’ grade and ‘B’ grade coffee was Rs 83 per kg and Rs 78 per kg in the last fiscal year.

Similarly, NTCDB has fixed Rs 425 per kg for Parchment ‘A’ grade coffee and Rs 410 per kg for Parchment ‘B’ grade coffee. Parchment coffee is produced through high-tech quality pulping equipment. In the last fiscal year, the board had fixed

Rs 415 for ‘A’ grade coffee and Rs 400 for ‘B’ grade coffee under this category.

Likewise, the support price of Dry Cherry ‘A’ grade coffee has been fixed at Rs 140 per kg. The support price of Dry Cherry ‘B’ grade coffee and ‘C’ grade coffee has been set at Rs 100 per kg and Rs 40 per kg, respectively. Dry Cherry is produced through traditional method of drying coffee. The prices of all these coffee varieties under ‘Dry Cherry’ category for the ongoing fiscal are only a continuation of the price fixed for previous fiscal year.

Sheshkanta Gautam, executive director of NTCDB, said that support prices of Fresh Cherry and Parchment coffee have been increased for the ongoing fiscal year as their production cost has increased slightly compared to the previous year.

A study carried out under the Trade and Private Sector Development Project of European Union (EU) has shown that though more than 1,198,000 hectares of land across the country is feasible for coffee farming, only a little over 61,000

hectares of land is best for farming of the product.

As per NTCDB, country produces almost 513 metric tonnes of green coffee beans every year. Similarly, statistics show that Nepal exported 84 tonnes of coffee worth Rs 903 million in the last fiscal year while country imported 163 tonnes of coffee worth almost Rs 66 million.

Meanwhile, Gautam informed that the board is planning to host a Coffee Investment Summit within next few months to attract investment in coffee farming and promote Nepali coffee.