Meet The Man Trying To Make Bangladesh's Coffee Production Self-Sufficient – CoffeeTalk

Mokhlesur Rahman, a young entrepreneur from the remote village of Goalbari in the Soyar union of Taraganj upazila in Rangpur district, has successfully grown coffee on his own initiative. Inspired by a Facebook video of successful coffee farming in the Chattogram Hill Tracts while working for a private company in Cumilla in 2015, Mokhlesur decided to try the same on the plain lands of Taraganj upazila in northern Bangladesh. He began coffee farming in 2017 and has already made a good profit from the venture and popularized its cultivation across the northern region.

Mokhlesur’s success stories originate from the remote village of Goalbari, which has 450 coffee trees covering only 20 decimals of the agricultural land. Visitors, including students, teachers, army officers, and foreigners, enjoy the taste of the coffee produced, processed, and prepared in various flavors at his ‘Rangpur Coffee Club’ located next to the plantation.

Despite earning a good reputation by farming coffee, marketing processed coffee, and earning good profits, Mokhlesur’s main goal is to reduce coffee imports and make Bangladesh self-sufficient in coffee production locally. Born into a well-off family, Mokhlesur passed the Dakhil examination in 2001, Alim examination in 2003, Bachelor of Arts (BA) examination in 2010, and obtained a master’s degree in political science from Carmichael College in 2014.

In 2015, Mokhlesur joined RFL Company as a showroom executive and was posted to the company’s showrooms in Rangpur, Lalmonirhat, and later Cumilla in 2015. He enrolled in a law college in Bogura but couldn’t appear for the examinations due to complications of working in a private company.

In 2016, Mokhlesur collected coffee seedlings from a nursery in Cox’s Bazar through his previously known nursery owner Md Abdul Quddus of Kishoreganj upazila in Nilphamari district. After applying raw phosphate and potash fertilisers to the soil, 350 seedlings died within a few days. The rest of the 450 saplings grew superbly and blossomed for the first time in March 2019.

Mokhlesur opened a Facebook page providing information about his coffee cultivation in 2019 and properly roasted and ground the coffee beans using available household equipment and his acquired knowledge to produce superior-quality powdered coffee. However, he failed to meet the terms and conditions of buyers and was fired in 2020.

Mokhlesur, a coffee farmer and entrepreneur, lost his job and decided to sell processed coffee to customers and expand coffee cultivation in the area. He researched online to gain knowledge about coffee production, quality improvement, roasting, color, fermentation, different flavors, and coffee flavor development. Coffee production continues to increase every year, and as demand for Mokhlesur’s cultivated and processed coffee increases, so does the number of people visiting his coffee plantation.

Mokhlesur’s garden produced 65 kg of coffee beans in 2020, 100 kg in 2021, 90 kg in 2022, and 80 kg in 2023. After roasting and processing, he sold ground coffee at Tk3,800 per kg from 2022 to 2023. Since 2024, he has been selling processed coffee at Tk2,800 per kg directly to customers and online. Inspired by Mokhlesur’s success, many farmers have collected coffee seedlings from him and planted them in their own gardens in about 25 districts of all seven divisions across the country.

In 2024, Mokhlesur processed 300 kg of coffee beans, including his production and purchased from other farmers. He has spent Taka three lakh on his 20 decimals land coffee plantation with 450 trees and earned a net profit of Tk15 lakh. He hopes to harvest 55 kg of coffee beans this year and buy 750 kg of coffee beans from other farmers in the region who are growing the crop after receiving seedlings from him.

Mokhlesur launched the ‘Rangpur Coffee Club’ next to his garden in 2020, where people gather for coffee chats and buy his processed coffee in packets. He earns Tk10,000-12,000 per month by selling coffee in cups alone at his coffee club and by selling processed powdered coffee in packets directly from his ‘Rangpur Coffee Club’ and online marketing.

With coffee farming becoming a profitable venture, Mokhlesur wants to strengthen the agro-based economy of the Rangpur region by expanding farming coffee as a cash crop. If Mokhlesur gets support, he can jointly take the initiative to set up a modern coffee processing industry with the government, foreign companies, and experts at Taraganj.

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