PRODUCER: U Sai Wan Maing

ORIGIN: Pyin Oo Lwin, Myanmar

VARIETY: CR, SL34

PROCESS: Washed

ALTITUDE: 1100 - 1250m

Green Land Coffee Plantation was founded by U Sai
Wan Maing in 1999 after selling his rubber plantation.
It's located in Pyin Oo Lwin, formerly Maymyo, a scenic
hill town known for its botanical gardens and examples
of colonial architecture. Rising from the central basin, it
is contained within the Shan plateau at 1150 masl in the
east of Myanmar and forms part of the Indo-Malayan
mountain system. The orange-red flowers of the
erythrina tree dot the landscape and provide nitrogen
fixing for the soils, important for growing coffee.

Green Land is one of Myanmar’s largest coffee farms,
starting out as 30 acres with rapid expansion in the
first three years to becoming over 580,000 coffee
trees grown on 450 acres. The main variety grown is
locally known as Costa Rica, though in reality is a
Catimor from Costa Rica. SL34 forms around 10% of
the farm but U Sai Wan is also conducting experiments
with Yellow Bourbon, Caturra and Catuai too.

Shade is too heavy to produce great quality in
some areas of the farm, and rust has already
started in the older trees, so these areas are
forming the focus for the immediate future. On
average, 1 acre produces about 300kg of green
coffee. However, one of the shade trees,
macadamia, also produces a valuable crop. It is
more valuable than coffee.

Around 15 workers are employed full time on the
farm, rising to 100 when the harvest is ongoing.
For an average day though, around 50 workers
are present on the farm. There are basic wet and
dry milling facilities if needed, but exporter
Mandalay Coffee Group has better more
specific equipment so the preference is to mill
with them.