Thailand

Northern highland arabica and a large southern robusta industry, with a coffee story rooted in 1970s efforts to replace opium poppies.

Thailand came to coffee late and for a specific reason: in the 1970s King Bhumibol Adulyadej launched coffee projects in the northern highlands to give local communities a cash crop as an alternative to opium poppies, and the country became a coffee exporter in 1976. Two overlapping but distinct institutions carried that idea forward. The Royal Project Foundation began in 1969 when the King visited an opium-growing village on Doi Pui and funded a switch to substitute crops, starting from peaches. It grew into 38 development centers across five northern provinces, became a permanent foundation in 1992, and won a Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1988 as one of the first and most successful opium-elimination projects. Separately, Princess Mother Srinagarindra's Mae Fah Luang Foundation ran the Doi Tung Development Project from 1988 across some 15,000 hectares of a major opium-producing region, introducing alternative crops such as coffee and macadamia. Two named highland coffees from this history, Doi Tung and Doi Chang, both reportedly carry EU-protected status, though sources differ on the year and designation type. Northern arabica is grown at roughly 800-1,200 meters. In the south, robusta grows chiefly in Chumphon, Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Krabi, Phang Nga and Ranong. Thailand's coffee-import tariffs are reported to be the second highest in the world, which limits foreign single-origin offerings.

History

Commercial coffee in Thailand is a product of 1970s opium-substitution policy. King Bhumibol's 1969 visit to a village on Doi Pui led to what became, in 1992, the Royal Project Foundation, which now runs 38 centers across five northern provinces, with the largest number (27) in Chiang Mai. Thailand became a coffee exporter in 1976. In 1988, separately, Princess Mother Srinagarindra's Doi Tung Development Project began work across roughly 15,000 hectares of a major opium-producing region, introducing crops such as coffee and macadamia (average local income rose from about US$120 per person in 1989 to almost US$1,400 by 2011). Meanwhile a separate robusta industry grew in the south, chiefly in Chumphon, Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Krabi, Phang Nga and Ranong, and high import tariffs limit foreign competition.