Crude coffee exports is a great disadvantage for Vietnam?

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Domestic coffee is a concept that takes a lot of time.

“Congestion" in the domestic coffee market

According to statistics, Vietnam is the second largest coffee exporter in the world (Vietnam exported about 1.8 million tons of coffee beans in 2017). However, up to 90% of crude coffee is exported, so the Vietnam coffee trademark has been not named in the world. Meanwhile, daily in the domestic market, consumers face coffee mixed with additives, pure coffee accounts for a very small proportion. Meanwhile, the best quality coffees are exported to foreign countries, and Vietnam has to import about 60,000 tons of processed coffee each year from Brazil, the USA and China…

At the commentary on coffee held on November 3, 2018, in Ha Noi, delegate Duong Trung Quoc said that, “Vietnam is the second largest coffee producer of coffee beans in the world but it is weak in processing. Moreover, the domestic coffee has not yet really met standards, especially for coffee quality, ecological and environmental safety. It can be said that crude coffee exports is a great disadvantage for Vietnamese consumers.”

Mr. Quoc also said that in fact, Vietnam has a lot of potential to produce coffee beans, but domestic consumers regularly face the quality issue problems. Thus, the development of standards for coffee is not easy. However, the first standard that we can not do is to minimize the safety of ecosystems such as soil erosion and quality of products. Thereby, we can promote different coffee quality to create the essence for attracting consumers. We have a favorable condition which is the production of coffee beans, if we process towards bringing benefit for Vietnam- the huge market, it will be successful.

What does farmer enjoy from the coffee standard?

Mr. Phan Minh Thong, General Director of Phuc Sinh Joint Stock Company, the representative of K-Coffee said that, “One of the standards in the coffee industry and is essential for coffee farmers is UTZ Certification. This is a certificate issued by a Netherlands organization that regulates for the food industry in the world. UTZ requires many standards that farmers have to meet such as environmental issues, coffee age, fertilizer, the time of pesticide use, human resource, land and soil, etc. For example, for coffee, within 60 days before harvesting the use of pesticides and fertilizers is not allowed.”

UTZ's criteria are to ensure the sustainable development of the farmers and create the foundation and motivation for the industry’s development. When meeting these standards, the productivity will increase and products will be easily sold.

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According to Mr. Thong, currently, most of us are destroying the environment and have not really paid attention to the environment. “We are working in the agricultural sector so we realize that pesticide residues in many products and goods are many times higher than the standards. The American Spice Trade Association has issued a warning on this issue and perhaps it is time for us to change.”

As a person with many years of experience in the coffee industry, Mr. Thong shared that a perfect coffee product does not need any additional ingredients. Pure coffee is not a powder with added ingredients for an aromatic coffee smell. Pure coffee will have a cockroach or blackish color if condensed.