STT association

Shwe Taung Thu farmers association now includes 17 communities—and is growing.

Scattered across the Ywangan Region of Shan State, Myanmar, Shwe Taung Thu became the country’s first registered community-based specialty coffee producers association in May 2018. Today, their co-op is the country’s largest producer of dry naturals with women making up 60% of their workforce and a community boasting over 3,000 members total.

Noteworthy

Pesticides are prohibited in Ywangan Township, so residents and smallholders produce coffee in an organic style. While it is not yet formally organic certified, this is something we’re working on with Shwe Taung Thu and Sawbwa Coffee to formalize in coming seasons.

Processing methods

Cherries are delivered daily by producers to a central collection depot in each individual producing village. Here, individual lots are inspected, graded and sorted before being purchased for dry naturals processing on raised drying beds. Each lot is separated by day and, after slow drying is complete to ~12% moisture levels, they are sent either to Amayar Women’s Processing Facility or Mandalay Coffee Group for further wet and dry milling.

Available micro-lots for 2024: