Rampur (Palpa), 25 January: When I went to villages carrying coffee in a bag for sale, I became the laughing stock of many people. I had to face the treatment of going from village to village to sell coffee because I could not find work. However, I kept my courage in me and used to go to villages to promote coffee. Now, the situation has changed, customers come to their homes to buy coffee.
This experience belongs to young Prem Bahadur Singh Thakuri. He is a resident of Bhambak, Rampur Municipality-5, Palpa. He has changed his identity through the coffee business. Five years ago, he did not think that he would be known in society through the coffee business. Currently, his identity is not Prem Bahadur, but he is known as a coffee businessman and many people’s coffee brother. He has received an identity that he did not think about in life.
As coffee is being exported not only to the villages, cities, and markets of Nepal but also to foreign lands, he has become determined to sustain the business in the long term and continue to work on it. He has registered the business under the name of ‘Organic Tea and Coffee’ and is operating it by installing a processing machine in his own home.
Currently, Prem Bahadur has been exporting coffee to countries such as Japan, Korea, Germany, UAE, Malta and others. According to him, the work of exporting coffee here is being done with the help of a friend who travels abroad. It is consumed in markets such as Kathmandu, Pokhara, Butwal, Tansen and others. He informed that this year, he has consumed about one hundred kilos of coffee repeatedly in Korea, Japan, Germany, Malta, and UAE. Last year, the same amount was consumed.
“The coffee grown at home was produced, they started processing it, where to sell the processed coffee now, they were confused about this. When they reached the door to door of the locals, many of them were laughing at them, where to take them to sell, no one knew, they were confused,” Prem Bahadur said while recounting his experience, “Even though the tireless hard work and physical exhaustion made me tired, I did not let my courage get tired. Yesterday, I went to sell coffee in the village, today they are the ones who come to my house to buy it.”
Prem Bahadur’s experience is that if the product is good, it may take time, but one day it will definitely find a market. He said that if customers and traders can be convinced, business will gradually improve. He himself produces, purchases, processes and sends coffee to the market. He started marketing after it was certified by the Food and Quality Control Office, Bhairahawa, through a lab test. Tea is sold in the market at the price set by the Coffee Development Board.
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Prem Bahadur, who started coffee farming on five ropanis of land in Lagda, Chapakot Municipality-4, Syangja, about eight years ago, has expanded his coffee cultivation to about 35 ropanis in Patsar, Chapakot-7 two years ago. He has started his coffee processing business since 2078 BS and has invested about Rs. 2.5 million in his business. He has been producing plants, inspiring farmers in villages to plant coffee, and providing coffee plants to locals.
Prem Bahadur is preparing to plant about 16,000 plants in the coming Asar-Shrawan. He has experience that selling plants yields better profits than processed coffee. He says that he currently produces five quintals of his own coffee and purchases 13 quintals from locals in a year. He consumes an average of one ton of processed coffee in the market annually.
According to Prem Bahadur, there is currently a high demand for coffee from local hotels and restaurants. The habit of drinking coffee has become established in rural areas. Customers who buy and drink it once tend to come back again and again.
Prem Bahadur worked for a coffee company in Korea for eight years during his foreign employment. There, he learned the skills of coffee production, processing and marketing. He saw that the coffee produced in Gulmi was purchased by the company he worked for, processed and sold in the market under the name Himalaya’s Gift, and after seeing the potential in his own country, he started the business after returning to his village.
Since foreigners were branding coffee produced in Nepal and selling it at high prices, he believed that we could also produce it and started farming by bringing seeds from Gulmi. He buys and sells coffee varieties such as Barmun Armillo, Barmun Verbilo, and Geisia. Since it is a local product, it has been very popular with customers.
Prem Bahadur said that Rampur Municipality has facilitated marketing. He suggests that young people should stay in their own villages and do some business instead of going abroad. There is a lot of demand for deula (raw coffee material), that is, coffee with the husk removed. After starting processing, it has become easier to sell the coffee produced by the village farmers. Mayor Raman Bahadur Thapa says that the municipality has made arrangements for selling coffee in the Koseli houses prepared by the municipality.
“We are encouraging entrepreneurs and facilitating various grant programs, training, and marketing of the municipality. We are purchasing local products from local entrepreneurs to give as gifts to guests visiting the municipality from outside. The municipality is investing in productive sectors to increase income,” said Mayor Thapa.
Narayan Prasad Gaire, Chief of Agriculture Branch, said that this year, interest equivalent to Rs. 1 million will be provided through the interest subsidy program of Rampur Municipality to promote the coffee business. He said that the interest that entrepreneurs have to pay monthly for the loan amount taken from various banks and financial institutions in Rampur for the business will be provided in the account every three months for two years.
