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Café Amazon sustainable coffee farming project in Mae Jam District, Chiangmai | Photo credit: Café Amazon
Café Amazon operator PTTOR has announced plans to build a coffee centre in Thailand’s Lampang province to meet rising coffee demand across the country.
Dubbed Amazon Park, the 240-acre site will operate as an ‘open organic farm’ and R&D hub, educating Thai coffee farmers on planting, cultivating and harvesting premium quality arabica and robusta coffee.
The project will enable Bangkok-based oil and retail operator PTTOR to expand its domestic contract farmer network and boost coffee supply to its 4,045 Café Amazon sites across the country, according to CEO Disathat Punyarachun.
Thailand is one of the top 25 coffee producing countries in the world. According to the International Coffee Organization, the country produces approximately 25,000 tonnes of coffee per year.
Café Amazon sites alone require 6,000 tonnes annually according to PTTOR, which estimates total domestic demand at 80,000 tonnes per year.
The Amazon Park site will complement PTTOR’s knowledge exchange programme with Thailand’s Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, which seeks to support coffee farmers in the northern and southern provinces of Thailand to gain increased productivity and income from sustainable coffee cultivation, while improving coffee production volume and quality according to international standards.
In 2023, PTTOR also established a sustainable coffee farming project in Mae Chaem District, Chiangmai, to support hilltribe farmers to generate a sustainable source of income from coffee harvesting while positively contributing to land use efficiency.
The budget for Amazon Park will be finalised this quarter with development of the project expected to take five years.
Founded in 2002, Café Amazon currently holds a 48% share of Thailand’s branded coffee shop market, which comprises more than 8,350 outlets. The coffee chain also operates approximately 400 outlets across 10 international markets, including Cambodia, China, Laos, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia.
Sales in PTTOR’s food and beverage segment, which comprises Café Amazon, Texas Chicken, Pearly Tea and Pacamara Coffee Roasters, were tracking 10% above 2022 levels through the first nine months of last year at THB 11.2bn ($311m). Third quarter F&B revenues increased 9% to THB 3.8bn ($106m), which PTTOR attributed to Café Amazon outlet expansion.
