Overview

• Low startup costs and customer willingness to pay premium prices have fueled the opening of roughly 7,000 coffee cafés in Nepal’s cities.
• Gagan Pradhan has expanded his Himalayan Java brand from a single Kathmandu alley shop to 84 outlets nationwide.
• At about $2 per cup—equivalent to five servings of traditional tea or a local meal—coffee has become a premium lifestyle purchase for office workers and students.
• Domestic production reached about 400 tons in fiscal year 2021-22, and new plantations in eastern mountain regions are poised to boost Nepal’s coffee output.
• The growing preference for coffee reflects a broader Asian pattern of emerging middle classes in tea-drinking countries embracing café culture and novel flavors.