Today we joined the EEC Matching event, organized by the Eastern Economic Corridor Office (EECO) together with Rajabhat Rajanagarindra University and Khao Chong Group. The event is a genuine push to build a "Coffee City" — not just about big investment, but about community development, creating jobs, and giving local people the opportunity to grow sustainably together.
Our favorite part was hearing the talk on "The Coffee Value Chain: From Upstream to Downstream" by Sakchai Nanmin, founder of A Cup of Joe — covering everything from selecting varietals, growing, processing, all the way to product development. There's so much story behind a single cup of coffee.
The Brewing Experience workshop had us brewing our own drip coffee, with the A Cup of Joe team teaching patiently — even beginners could keep up. At Coffee Craft, we heard the success story of a Thai coffee business straight from Awit Jiralertpong, an executive at Khao Chong Group, packed with genuine insight.
There were also proposals for elevating "Paet Riu (Chachoengsao) Coffee" through innovation and local identity, tying it into a food-tourism route. What we liked most is that this whole event runs on a public-private partnership model genuinely focused on developing people, knowledge, and community opportunity — not just measured in money.