Two shipments of coffee beans from Myanmar arrived in the United States this month. This is the first commercial-scale import in over 15 years and the fruits of a U.S. government development program for farmers in the once-isolated southeast Asian economy.
The two containers, totaling 600 60-kg bags, imported by Seattle-based Atlas Coffee Importers are a fraction of the 24.8 million bags of coffee consumed annually in the United States. But the shipments could herald a welcome diversification from traditional supply areas that are being hit by climate change.
“It will be sold as single origin and as special coffee that we’re offering,” says Darrin Daniel, director of sourcing for Allegro Coffee Company, a Whole Foods subsidiary that supplies much of the food store’s coffee.
Myanmar exported only modest amounts of coffee in the 1990s and a shipment of 17 60-kg bags in 2015 was the first delivery since 2000, U.S. government data shows. Burmese immigrant Melvin Tan, who founded Austin, Texas-based Irrawaddy Coffee Roasters in 2015, said he imported 10 bags from Myanmar that year.
