Tour details Photo Gallery Sustainability

Pickup info:

Participants are to make their own way to Paksong for the 8:00 am start.

Koffie's meeting point in the Laos coffee capital; Paksong, is the only place in Paksong with real coffee, just on the main road Pakse - Paksong - Tat Lo/Attapeu. (Look for the sign "COFFEE" on the main road).



Caring for destination

This tour provider has taken action to address one or more issues (whether environmental, social or cultural) which will contribute positively to the long term viability of the destination and hence their site displays a Caring for the destination rating.

Main area of focus in Caring for the Destination:  


Promoting Local Products


Detailed description of the Caring for the Destination Initiative: 


WonCoffee promotes a local product that is the livelihood of the Bolaven Plateau, especially Paksong. By offering tours and workshops, this not only gives foreign visitors an insight into the area and importance of coffee to the region and Laos in its entirety, but also allows you to access first hand and directly from the source; organic, fair trade coffee. By seeing where it's grown and knowing that your purchase has gone directly to the farmer's your, experience in Lao and love for coffee will mean so much more than buying from a supermarket.

The tour and workshop gives the international market access and an understanding to what would normally be a difficult production to witness in rural Laos and also promotes a produce that is so important to the lives of those living on the Bolaven Plateau.

Coffee was first introduced to Laos when the French planted crops on the Bolaven Plateau in the early 1900s. According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (http://www.fao.org/), Coffee is the 5th largest export earner for Laos and the top agricultural export, yet it still only accounts for 0.25% of the world production and according to BBC News only provides Laos with about $20m in foreign currency earnings ("Laos' fresh coffee hopes" BBC News, 29 Mar 2002).

Coffee in Laos is cultivated almost exclusively on the Bolaven Plateau and is a mixture of smallholder and large estates. In Paksong district alone, 5000 families are involved with coffee farming with many members of the families moving permanently from the more remote areas of the district to trade coffee in Paksong. Many families depend entirely on the income provided from the coffee harvest and by visiting Paksong, you can purchase organic farm-trade coffee in the fairest way direct from one of the 5000 families in Paksong from the Bolaven Plateau.

The Bolaven Plateau, with its higher altitudes ranging from 600 to 1300 metres above sea level, cooler temperatures, optimal rainfall and dark, rich soils from an extinct volcano makes this area and these conditions perfect for growing world class coffee and amounts for 95% of the country's coffee production. Many ethnic minority groups are members of the coffee growing communities, including the J'rou ethnic group.