In Ban Doi Chaang, in the highlands of Northern Thailand, collaboration between a remote tribal village and a group of Canadian coffee enthusiasts has led to a new approach to producing one of the world’s hottest commodities. The ethnic minority Akha villagers cultivate Arabica coffee using methods that favour human rights, environmental integrity and high quality standards, and their partnership with a group of Canadian businessmen is a uniquely egalitarian relationship between “First World” consumers and “Third World” producers that takes a small step toward balancing the scales of global inequality.
Ban Doi Chaang, roughly translated as “Village of Elephant Mountain,” has changed a lot in the past 30 years. In the mid-1980s, Thai and international organizations made efforts to develop the economy of the village, with the objectives of improving quality of life, reducing poverty and eradicating opium production. Previously most villagers grew only rice for their family and opium to be used as medicine and sold as a valuable cash crop. A variety of new crops were introduced, but these programs came with endless problems: prices did not provide enough income and crops did not grow well on the mountainside so they required chemical fertilizers and pesticides, which were expensive and caused environmental and health problems.
Entrepreneurial Spirit
In the early 2000s, the villagers of Ban Doi Chaang decided to form their own independent coffee-growing cooperative, handling their own production and distribution rather than relying on middlemen. They approached a group of Canadians to establish an equal partnership for international distribution, including John M. Darch, an entrepreneur who had been doing business in Thailand for more than 20 years. John, along with Doi Chaang village headman Piko Saedoo, became co-founders of the Doi Chaang Coffee Company. The company’s Canadian offices are based in Vancouver and their beans are roasted in Calgary. While the villagers own and operate 100% of their business in Thailand, they also own 50% of the Doi Chaang Coffee Company. The company produces and distributes a high quality, certified organic Arabica that can be sold without middlemen at international rates.
Planting coffee is also a way for Ban Doi Chaang to contribute to reforestation of the mountainside in an area where forest loss has long been a problem. Coffee is cultivated under a canopy of local shade trees, and other plant species are intercropped in the coffee fields, including fruits and vegetables, creating a natural ecosystem for local species of plants and animals. The soil is protected by the canopy, held in place by tree root systems and nourished by fallen leaves, preventing soil erosion and depletion. This has eliminated the need for chemicals and pesticides.
Good Coffee!
The coffee project has changed life in Ban Doi Chaang. Previously, food security and low standards of living were constant problems. The village now has running water, electricity, a basic sewage system, a medical clinic, an improved road and a small school. Young people who had left the village due to a lack of opportunities are now returning to share in the community’s prosperity and the Akha people are able to prosper without abandoning their unique cultural traditions.
Learn more: Doi Chaang Coffee