MCG YWANGAN
Geographical situation, context.
Ywangan Township, with an elevation of 1098 - 1534 masl, is located in Shan State, in the middle east of Myanmar. It is also a part of the Danu Self-Administered Zone. The Danu Self-Administered Zone is, as stipulated by the 2008 Constitution of Myanmar, is a self-administered zone consisting of two townships in Shan State:
l Pindaya Township
l Ywangan Township
Both townships are administratively part of the Taunggyi District. The zone is self-administered by the people who belongs to Danu Ethnic group.
Social background
Despite Ywangan is especially known for the quality of its coffee, is not different from other coffee producing regions around the world. Market prices, climate issues or low-income social background are some, to name a few, of the challenges they face.
Out of 125 villages in Ywangan Township, about 90 are engaged in coffee plantation, with 7,300 acres of coffee farms. Ywangan began growing coffee in the early 1980s, as a substitute crop for poppy. Farmers here typically own a quarter to three acres, on which they intercrop a few varieties of Arabica coffee with crops such as avocado, jackfruit, jengkol beans, papaya, pineapple, passion fruits, banana, tea leaf or shady macadamia trees.
Coffee helped to develop the region in recent years, especially with the emergence of Myanmar in the international specialty coffee market. Nowadays, farmers have access to more fair market prices, inside the country and overseas, for their cherries or their green beans. Some collective initiatives had flourished no only in Ywangan, but also in other regions of Shan State, having as a result new actors in coffee market, being of great importance the appearance in the scene of new processors.
Ywangan Region: actual challenges
MCG contacted some village representatives to ask them about the situation in their villages. Some farmers replied us with climate issues mainly, for example, last year they had a strong hail rain with bad consequences for the productivity in the present season. This is a small resume of our conversations:
1. Issues concerning with coffee
l Last years rain and hail rain at Na Ban Gyi village and Ka Zat Village, especially southern part of village. Because of this climate event, the productivity of coffee cherry is lower this year.
l Apparently, there is no diseases in the coffee trees.
l The farmers need a system for taking care and maintenance of coffee trees because the productivity is lower and lower year by year.
l They have a subsistence economy. The people from Ywangan can survive not only because of the coffee, but also the other crops, like tea leaf, passion fruits, banana, pineapple, papaya, orange, avocado or macadamia.
2. Issues not related to coffee
l The main problem was the lack of fresh water in Ywangan (especially Oak Twin Village, Kyauk Pon Village, Ka Zat Village and Hta Min Paung Village). Usually, they collect the rain water in the well and use at the summer.
l Some state schools in some villages don’t have enough school accessories.
l The main road of Ywangan is half asphalted and half is not asphalted. Villagers are trying to build the remaining half road.
MCG buying structure
MCG has been one of this main actors for the last five years. Back in the day, MCG was a key character in the responsibility of raising the prices of red cherries from around 300MMK per viss (1.63kg), to 600MMK. Last year, our price range goes within 90-1100MMK. This year is the highest cherry price in the coffee history as 2200-2500 MMK per viss. The importance of this change is that any other processor in the region is also purchasing cherries from Ywangan in this range of prices.
MCG has an agreement with one cherry purchasing agent in Ywangan. By the name of U Thint Lwin, he is a retired Agriculture Officer, working in coffee since 2012. MCG pre-finances village-level collectors before the harvest, with payments in advance and quality expectations communicated through our seasonal buyer. U Thint Lwin worked with the Ministry of Agriculture with citrus and other crops in the Ywangan area for decades before joining venture with MCG as cherry buyer.
During harvest season, he visits each village to ensure farmers are only picking ripe cherry, and coordinates collection points to efficiently send fresh cherry north, to MCG’s processing facility in Pyin Oo Lwin. Many of these village smallholders are also involved in their own small-scale production of dry natural coffees, an initiative that MCG supported by financing start-up and seasonal costs since 2015.
MCG advances the money to the cherry buying agent, in the sequence, he repays the collectors of the farmers for their cherries. Collectors are some kind of representative or leader the villagers choose. Payments to the collectors occurs when each village delivers an amount of 500 viss (815 kg). This usually happens every two deliveries. In MCG we have an average of five deliveries per week.
Villages which are delivering to MCG in 2021/22 harvest.
Below we stated the name of the villages we are buying cherries from this crop, as well as the name of the representatives on each village. The total number of farmers is over 50.
1. Sin Nat Chaung Village
a. Mr. Tay Tay
b. Mrs. Ni Ni Myint
2. Kyauk Ku Pyin Village
a. Mrs. Mar Mar Toe
b. Mrs. Ma Lay
3. Nwar Ban Gyi Village
a. Mrs. Ma Kyu
4. Doke Htoe Yay Village
a. Mr. Mg Than
5. Kyauk Pon Village
a. Mrs. Su Wai
6. Kyauk Kuu Ti Village
a. Mrs. Ni Kwee
b. Mr. Soe Hlaing
7. Hta Min Paung Village
a. Mr. Aung Lwin
8. Oak Twin Village
a. Mrs. Ma Oo
9. Kyauk Ngat Village
a. Mrs. Ma Khine
b. Mr. Phoe Kyaw
10. Dala Pin Village
a. Mr. Tin Than
b. Mrs. Ma Nge
c. Mrs. Ma Thin
11. Thein Gone Village
a. Mrs. Htar Nyo
12. Ngwe Taung Village
a. Mr. Aung Pew
b. Mr. Thein Tun
13. Inn Gyi Village
a. Mr. Kim Chaw
14. Yay Oo Village
a. Mrs. Ma Cho
15. Ka Zat Village
a. Mrs. Hnin Mar Yi
16. Pway Na Phar Village
a. Mr. Tin Kho
Feasability of Organic Certification
According with the information we gather from the community leaders we could contact recently, as well as from our buying agent U Thint Lwin, Ywangan communities do not use any kind of chemical defensive, neither chemical fertilizer. Despite this lack of industrial-chemical treatment, they did not reply that they have any disease, neither we found in their cherries. The only product they add to the soil is fertilizer from animal origin (mainly cattle and chicken manure).
