Bangkok: The Minister of Agriculture launched a collaboration between 36 government and private agencies, signing an MOU to promote Thai coffee as a high-value economic crop, focusing on improving quality, reducing imports, and creating sustainable income for farmers. Prof. Dr. Narumon Pinyosinwat, Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives, presided over and witnessed the signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to promote quality coffee production, research and development throughout the sustainable supply chain, together with 36 government and private agencies at Centara Life Hotel, Chaeng Watthana Government Complex, Bangkok, with the aim of promoting coffee as an important economic crop, reducing imports and increasing income for Thai farmers.
According to Thai News Agency, the Minister of Agriculture stated that the Thai coffee industry is currently facing both opportunities and challenges, especially domestic production that is still insufficient to meet demand, leading to reliance on imports. Meanwhile, consumer behavior tends to continuously demand more fresh coffee and specialty coffee, resulting in the domestic coffee market growing by an average of more than 3% per year. In 2022/23, 93,551 tons of raw coffee beans were used in the industrial sector, up from 80,691 tons in 2019/20.
This collaboration is therefore considered an integration from all sectors to improve Thai coffee in all dimensions, including quality, standards, value addition, use of technology and innovation, as well as creating a transparent market system and sustainable environmental management.
Under the MOU framework, a joint working group between the public and private sectors will be established to closely supervise and monitor the results of operations, with a goal of having over 12,000 farmer households enter a quality coffee production system within 3 years, starting with a pilot area of ??1,000 rai, and promoting the participation of new-generation farmers and young farmers in developing towards the international market.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Narumon emphasized that promoting coffee as an economic crop will help farmers have an alternative to change from a crop that is in surplus to the market to a crop that the market truly needs, along with driving towards a high-value agricultural system, reducing imports, and creating long-term food security for the country.