In November and December 2019, ProFound experts Geertje Otten and Bert-Jan Ottens travelled to Myanmar for a range of activities. They visited actors in sustainable business development, such as SNV, World Bank, Helvetas, ZOA, Solidaridad, WHH and FCA. In Taungoo, they had an exciting 2-day training with a team of SNV and ZOA. The training was geared to a multi-stakeholder platform of farmers and relevant actors working towards the sustainable and value-added supply of cardamom and curcumin

Another focus of the trip to Myanmar was a project on biodiversity coffee.

Nathalie Manac’h from Nat Coffee and Bert-Jan Otten from ProFound in the Chin State in Myanmar

Our work with Nat Coffee

After these meetings, Bert-Jan continued to upper Chin State to work with social entrepreneur Nathalie Manac’h of Nat Coffee. Together with local coffee producers and government representatives, they designed first steps of Nat Coffee’s strategy. This project wants to create sustainable sourcing and certification of coffee and other products from biodiversity. The aim of this field visit and workshop was to map agro-forestry and protected biodiversity zones. In addition, this trip intended to identify opportunities for sustainable wild-collection in buffer zones. This project may result in the first FairWild certified products from Myanmar. Follow the news in the coming months to stay updated about this project.