"Major Thai coffee brand vows to repay 200 debt-ridden farmers," 17 February 2020

A major Thai coffee brand has vowed to repay about 200 farmers who were forced to take out loans while waiting nearly three years for payment, leaving them with spiralling debts.

Doi Chaang Coffee...said it would pay about 7 million baht ($224,000) after the Thomson Reuters Foundation revealed the non-payment and ensuing debts.

"By June we should be able to pay back all of the money that we owe to the coffee growers," said Panachai Pisailert, managing director of Doi Chaang Coffee Original Co.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation spoke to 20 farmers in three villages in northern Chiang Rai, who said Doi Chaang had owed them payments ranging from 2,000 to 230,000 baht since 2017.