While coffee prices have surged to multi-year highs in the global market amid supply setbacks this November, prices in Nepal have remained stagnant, disappointing growers who are struggling to recover from the Covid-19 disaster. Dhakeshwar Ghimire, proprietor of Nepal Organic Coffee Products in Palpa, told the Post that this year’s harvest had declined due to “black frost” in the winter. “Brownish spots have appeared on large areas of the coffee plant in the highlands, but the crops in the lowlands were less affected by the blight,” said Ghimire, who has been producing organic coffee in Palpa since 1978. “Despite a fall in output, prices did not increase. The consumption of coffee in the domestic market too has dropped.” Traders said that consumption and sales had plunged to near zero in 2020 as the lockdown kept people indoors after the government issued stay-at-home orders to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The year 2021 too was not much better for coffee growers and sellers. While coffee farmers suffered due to the black forest which damaged their crops, coffee buyers, mostly hotels and restaurants, remained shutting for months and consumption d
source: Therisingnepal
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