Kathmandu, November 17

The National Tea and Coffee Development Board (NTCDB) has set the support price of coffee for the current fiscal year on the occasion of the 15th National Coffee Day. Celebrating the National Coffee Day in Gulmi this year, NTCDB has set the support price for six varieties of coffee produced in the country.

As per 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 75 per kg. Last year, price of ‘A’ grade fresh cherry and ‘B’ grade fresh cherry was set at Rs 85 per kg and Rs 80 per kg, respectively.

Likewise, NTCDB has set Rs 425 per kg for parchment ‘A’ grade coffee and Rs 375 per kg for parchment ‘B’ grade coffee. Last year, the price was settled at Rs 425 per kg and Rs 410 per kg for ‘A’ grade parchment coffee and ‘B’ grade parchment coffee, respectively. Similarly, the board has set Rs 140 per kg for dry cherry ‘A’ grade coffee and Rs 90 per kg for dry cherry ‘B’ grade coffee. In the previous year price of ‘A’ grade and ‘B’ grade dry cherry was set at Rs 140 per kg and Rs 100 per kg, respectively.

As per NTCDB, the price of different categories of coffee has been fixed based on the investment cost of coffee farming. Currently, coffee farming is being carried out on around 61,228 hectares of land. However, a total of 1.1 million hectares of land across the country is suitable for coffee farming. Some districts like Gulmi, Palpa, Argakhanchi, Lalitpur, Tanahu, Kavre, Sindhupalchowk, Lamjung, Kaski, Gorkha, Syangja, Parbat and Baglung are successfully growing and producing coffee beans and production has been increasing gradually.

According to NTCDB, Nepal exported a total of 530 tonnes of coffee last fiscal year while in the fiscal year 2017-18 a total of 513 tonnes of coffee had been exported to different countries. While the country had exported coffee worth Rs 996 million, coffee worth Rs 980 million had been imported in the last fiscal year. Nepal is exporting coffee beans mostly to Japan, America and European countries.