Nepal recorded a whopping 40 percent rise this year in organic coffee production compared to last year, The Kathmandu Post reported on Sunday.

The daily quoted Raghupati Chaudhary, acting chief of National Tea and Coffee Development Board, western regional office as saying that coffee production this year has soared to 391 tons from 278 tons of last year.

Moreover, of the total production, Nepal exported 91.5 tons of coffee to countries such as Japan, the United States, Britain and South Korea, among others this year.

"The export fetched the producers and marketers a total of 5.6 million Nepali rupees (86153.8 U.S. dollars)," said Chaudhary, adding that Nepal had exported a mere 2.45 million rupees (37,692 dollars) worth of coffee five years ago.

According to the report, coffee is produced in 40 districts out of 75 in Nepal. Among them 11 districts of western region alone produced 163 tons of coffee this year.

A total of 12,393 farmers in the region are actively involved in coffee farming.

Farmers into coffee production, meanwhile, urged the government to extend technical cooperation, subsidy on seed and pesticide along with market development activities.

Source: Xinhua