Rangamati’s Forgotten Coffee Experiment

There is something unusual about Rangamati and coffee. The trees are not new, but the effort to build a reliable coffee industry around them remains unfinished.

An Early Experiment

Coffee cultivation in the Chittagong Hill Tracts gained attention during the 1990s, and farmers in Rangamati were already being considered for future commercial production by the early 2000s. In 2001, coffee was also being tested at the Hill Agriculture Research Centre in Khagrachhari, where Arabica and Robusta seedlings were planted. [bdnews24](https://bdnews24.com/agriculture/as-coffee-cultivation-catches-on-with-farmers-bangladesh-plans-to-go-commercial-big-time)

The early promise was clear: coffee could grow in the region, and farmers showed interest in adding it to their existing crops.

The Missing Link

The central difficulty was never simply whether coffee plants could survive. It was whether farmers had the support needed to turn cherries into saleable coffee.

Coffee requires more than seedlings and land. Farmers need technical advice, harvesting knowledge, pulping equipment, drying space, grading systems, transportation, and dependable buyers. Without those links, a promising crop can remain an isolated farm experiment.

This is the key distinction:

Producing coffee cherries is agriculture. Producing marketable coffee is a supply chain.

Research Returns to Rangamati

Rangamati has remained part of Bangladesh’s modern coffee research programme. At the Raikhali Agricultural Research Centre in Kaptai, scientists have worked with improved varieties including BARI Coffee-1 and BARI Coffee-2, alongside Arabica- and Robusta-type plants. [tbsnews](https://www.tbsnews.net/economy/agriculture/towards-locally-developed-coffee-variety-208087)

The research has focused on varieties that can perform in Bangladesh’s hills and provide farmers with an additional crop. Reports suggest that the new varieties may begin producing after three to four years, with coffee grown as a companion crop rather than necessarily replacing existing farming systems. [bmirror](https://bmirror.net/plantation-begins-in-hills-with-bangladeshi-coffee-varieties/)

Encouraging, but Not Complete

Recent training and expansion programmes indicate renewed interest in Rangamati. In 2023, farmers from different areas received training in coffee and cashew cultivation, while later government programmes continued to promote coffee as a possible income source in the hill tracts. [deshrupantor](https://www.deshrupantor.com/462465/scientists-have-developed-two-improved-varieties-o)

But the presence of research stations and seedlings does not automatically create a functioning industry. Processing, market access, and farmer-level support remain decisive. Earlier experience in the region showed what happens when these systems fail to develop together.

Why the Story Matters

Rangamati’s coffee history is not best understood as a simple failure. It is better understood as an unfinished experiment.

The region has suitable locations, research experience, farmer interest, and improved planting material. What it has lacked consistently is a connected system linking production to processing and reliable markets.

That distinction matters for the future. Expanding coffee acreage without building processing facilities and buyer networks would repeat the old mistake. A realistic revival must develop the entire chain at the same time.

The Unfinished Experiment

Rangamati’s coffee story is therefore less about discovering whether coffee can grow there. That question has already been answered.

The harder question is whether farmers, researchers, processors, buyers, and public agencies can work together long enough to create a dependable domestic supply chain.

If they can, Rangamati’s forgotten experiment may become a foundation for a new coffee industry. If not, the hills may once again produce coffee plants without producing a lasting coffee economy.