[{"bbox": [98, 152, 1134, 206], "category": "Text", "text": "The development of the *coffee and tea* sectors is rather young and small-scale in terms of quantity and quality despite the long history of having coffee and tea production in Lao PDR."}, {"bbox": [98, 207, 610, 233], "category": "Text", "text": "The *coffee* sector still faces many important challenges:"}, {"bbox": [98, 234, 1134, 285], "category": "List-item", "text": "* Despite recent recognition of quality and increasing demand, Lao coffee is still exported at a discount (around 8-11 cents / lbs) to world markets."}, {"bbox": [98, 288, 1134, 343], "category": "List-item", "text": "* Low prices make it difficult for smallholder farmers to turn coffee into a profitable business, but high coffee prices from 2022 have greatly improved this situation."}, {"bbox": [98, 344, 1134, 424], "category": "List-item", "text": "* There is a need to increase competitiveness, including low farm-level productivity and underperformance of specialty coffee, the unreliability of some operators, as well as compliance with international quality standards in order to improve Lao coffee's reputation."}, {"bbox": [98, 425, 1134, 504], "category": "List-item", "text": "* The country is not represented in the International Coffee Organization (ICO), and the “Conseil National du Café Lao or the Lao Coffee Board” (CNCL), an inter-ministerial steering committee established in 2010, which is not functioning well."}, {"bbox": [98, 506, 1134, 612], "category": "List-item", "text": "* Traders and exporters also face difficulties, including weak capacity to gather and exploit business-relevant information and knowledge, high transportation costs, issues related to market access, and limited sector organisation. The Coffee production in the North is rather small and it is critical to have well-structured farmers groups linked with fair-trade operators."}, {"bbox": [98, 613, 1134, 693], "category": "List-item", "text": "* Finally, the coffee sector suffers from weak capacity for research and innovation, and for commercialisation, limited use of voluntary sustainability standards, challenging business environment, issues related to sustainability and inclusiveness, and barriers to digitalisation and e-commerce use."}, {"bbox": [98, 693, 640, 719], "category": "Text", "text": "With regard to the *tea* sector, the main challenges relate to:"}, {"bbox": [98, 721, 561, 746], "category": "List-item", "text": "* The threats on ancient and forest tea resources;"}, {"bbox": [98, 749, 1134, 803], "category": "List-item", "text": "* The need to develop equitable and mutually beneficial relationships between producers, processors and traders, in order to make a positive impact to livelihoods;"}, {"bbox": [98, 805, 682, 831], "category": "List-item", "text": "* The insufficient official recognition of quality products; and"}, {"bbox": [98, 833, 1134, 939], "category": "List-item", "text": "* The fluctuation of incomes during the year, given that during the longer and lower-value wet season period, there is much less demand, and tea producers are often unable to find a buyer (in most tea production areas, there is a high level of competition amongst buyers to purchase the higher quality and value spring pick, with multiple local and Chinese traders entering to buy tea at that time of the year)."}, {"bbox": [98, 940, 1134, 1019], "category": "List-item", "text": "* The tea production is impacted by the climate change phenomena such as flooding, draughts, and global warming. The application of the agro-ecology approach is foreseen by diversifying production, intercropping tea with other tree crops to minimise the issues."}, {"bbox": [98, 1046, 1134, 1072], "category": "Text", "text": "In the *Forestry* sector, the development of sustainable forest-based value chains faces several challenges, such as:"}, {"bbox": [98, 1074, 1134, 1187], "category": "List-item", "text": "* Deforestation, forest degradation and loss of biodiversity continue, despite the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) commitment to increase the country's forest cover up to 70% has been agreed, as encroachment into forest for settlement and agriculture persist, as well as infrastructure development and mining operation;"}, {"bbox": [98, 1190, 1134, 1246], "category": "List-item", "text": "* The remaining natural forests have only little timber volumes left of economic value. National efforts concentrate on the development of planted forests to satisfy future wood demand;"}, {"bbox": [98, 1249, 1134, 1303], "category": "List-item", "text": "* Biodiversity conservation is left unmentioned in the national goal of increasing the forest cover; and criteria and mechanisms for inclusion of local communities are unclear;"}, {"bbox": [98, 1308, 1134, 1363], "category": "List-item", "text": "* The legal framework and forest governance are weak and leave room for conflicts between forestry investors and villagers in the process of land identification;"}, {"bbox": [98, 1366, 1048, 1394], "category": "List-item", "text": "* Financial gap of public implementation structures, especially for field activities (incl. DOF., PAFO);"}, {"bbox": [98, 1396, 1134, 1452], "category": "List-item", "text": "* Capacities are weak to make use of existing forest resources (e.g. teak and rubber plantations), especially at local administrative levels and overall, in the value chains that are based on plantation forestry;"}, {"bbox": [98, 1455, 1134, 1510], "category": "List-item", "text": "* NTPFs such as bamboo and others contribute significantly to local livelihoods, but are not sustainably used and often overexploited;"}, {"bbox": [98, 1513, 1134, 1599], "category": "List-item", "text": "* Information systems are not serving the market participants around the value chains; and the absence of quality and other standards (e.g. environmental, social, governance, (ESG)) hinders the development of value chains with fair benefit-sharing;"}, {"bbox": [1037, 1681, 1145, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 8 of 30"}]