In November 2013, Winrock sent Rick Peyser to Burma on a volunteer assignment through the USAID-funded Farmer-to-Farmer program. A coffee expert with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Peyser spent two weeks in Burma with smallholder coffee farmers and coffee estates, assessing their needs and opportunities, and providing training. His visit is the subject of a feature story in the September/October issue of Roast magazine, “Coffee Production in Myanmar: An Exploratory Visit Reveals Rich Possibilities.”
Since returning to the U.S., Peyser has reached out to trade publications and coffee associations to spread the word about the potential for Burmese coffee with the hope that “small-scale farmers in Myanmar can improve their livelihoods with coffee, without giving up the rich diversity on their farms,” he said.
Read Peyser’s story in this PDF excerpt from Roast: