Thai-Canadian Doi Chaang couples quality with humanitarian efforts
Doi Chaang Coffee doesn’t want to be known for its humanitarian practices, though they have them. They don’t want praise for helping a poverty-stricken area of Thailand, though they did. If you’re going to buy Doi Chaang Coffee, they want it to be for one reason: quality.
“They do not wish to have charity or donations but they want to be known for the quality of their coffee and they want their coffee to be single-origined, not blended with other coffee,” says John Darch, founder of the Thai-Canadian company.
They’re the 800-family farming cooperative based in Northwest Thailand’s Doi Chaang (which translates to ‘Elephant Mountain’) village. After decades of developing businesses in Thailand, Darch took his admiration of the village’s self-sufficiency and put his knowledge of the area to work in a rare overseas partnership.
Teaming up with the coffee cultivators in Doi Chaang, Darch decided to bring the high-quality coffee to Canada to sell in a fair trade-rivalling financial agreement with the farmers. While Doi Chaang in Canada finances farming of the coffee, the farmers retain control of all Thai-based operations.
Darch says repaying the Thai people for how they helped him in his business past motivates his altruistic pursuits. “It’s a good feeling when I can honestly say we are representing the farmers and that we’re not doing this as a charity — it’s a commercial operation. Our goal is to ensure a fair reward goes back through to the farmers.”
Doi Chaang has a good honour system, commits to importing certain amounts of coffee and prepays for the product before it is delivered from Thailand, according to Darch. However, he says reaching the company’s goal is inhibited by the challenge of informing Canadians about their practices.
“As long as we present (the coffee) with integrity and clarity and total transparency, (the Doi Chaang farmers) are very comfortable with that. When (the public) understands the a compelling story behind it in terms of quality and structure, we gain their support.”
It is support Darch will need if he hopes to reach his expansion plans. Doi Chaang coffee is sold in stores mostly in British Columbia and Alberta and now in 15 stores across Toronto.
After establishing themselves more firmly in Ontario, Darch says they hope to expand into Quebec, and eventually extend into Europe.
