Chiang Mai to host tea and coffee expo, aims to be global trading hub

BANGKOK (The Nation/Asia News Network): The Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) will this week organise the World Tea and Coffee Expo, the largest tea and coffee event in the North, to stimulate the integrated tea-coffee industry and aim to be a global tea-coffee trading hub.

Sakchai Kunanuwatchaidet, the deputy governor of Chiang Mai, said that the province has a tea-coffee strategy for 2018-22 according to government policy.

Chiang Mai is now a city with great potential to become the world's most important coffee and tea city in terms of both the cultivation area and quality coffee beans, which is the source of the coffee industry.

There are more than 1,000 coffee shops in Chiang Mai, including many businesses related to the coffee and tea industry, Sakchai said.

Dr Jutha Tarachai, director of the Northern Convention and Exhibition Bureau, said that northern Thailand is one of the best tea and coffee-growing regions in the country, which is recognised worldwide as a producer of premium coffee beans and fine tea leaves as demonstrated by many international tea and coffee awards.

“The 2nd World Tea & Coffee Expo: The 2nd Tea and Coffee International Symposium” will be held in a hybrid format in Chiang Mai from Feb 24-27 at the Empress Convention Centre, The Empress Chiang Mai Hotel.

Dr Jutha expects to have more than 1,000 participants and more than 10 million baht worth of transactions during the expo, which will directly benefit coffee and tea producers in the upper northern provinces, especially Chiang Mai, Lamphun, Lampang, Mae Hong Son, Chiang Rai, Phayao, Phrae and Nan.