Vietnam

The Introduction of Coffee

This had all changed by 1990, by which point Vietnam had reached its current place as the second highest producing coffee country in the world (after Brazil) – a result of heavy investment in coffee production made possible by the liberalisation of land ownership under Đổi Mới reforms in the mid-1980s and World Bank/IMF policy recommendations incentivising farmers to produce coffee for export. The country’s story of rapid growth, however, left little room for high-quality coffee. The reforms were extremely successful not only with coffee, but other agricultural products. Some 95% of the country’s production is Robusta, and although Arabica coffee production has been increasing in recent years due to the expansion in growing area and yield improvement, it still accounts for a small portion of the overall coffee production in Vietnam. Coffee, strangely, only accounts for 0.75% of exports but brings in $2.24 billion of revenue.

Coffee production in Vietnam is concentrated in the Central Highlands (80%), and the small portion of Arabica grown in the country hails almost entirely from the Lam Dong province, located in the north of the province. The terrain here is largely what is locally called ‘Bazan Red land’ (red basalt soil) and offers the perfect conditions for growing coffee. This rich volcanic mountain soil, coupled with the highland elevations contributes to slow, even development of the coffee cherry and, ultimately, to a sweeter, better cup of coffee.