Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam is one of the largest coffee producersin the world, earning more than 3 billion USD from the export of coffee beaneach year, but the country mainly sells beans as material with low added value.

Director of the Rural Development Centre Dao Duc Huan has discussed withthe Vietnam News Agency the building of brand name for Vietnamese coffee.

Huan said Vietnam should base itsapproach to brand building on its advantages and long-term vision. For example,it can exploit the advantage of specialty coffee growing areas such as Buon MaThuot or Son La to establish brand names in connection with geographicindication (GI).

At the same time, the brand building work should go in the direction ofhigh-quality product, based on connections among cultivation-processing and themarket.

According to the official, several ministries and local administrationshave adopted policies and measures to establish brand names for specialtycoffee through GI protection. At present, Vietnam has had two coffee productswith GI, which are Buon Ma Thuot and Son La coffee.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has approved aframework national project on developing high-quality coffee. The project aimsto develop a coffee industry from farming to processing. It will encourage theuse of new coffee varieties and advanced farming and post-harvest techniques, mechanizationand reorganization of production for higher productivity, better productquality, and climate change resilience.   

Huan noted that brand building work is facing many difficulties in thecontext of the small scale and limited capacity of the local coffee industry.

He cited the lesson of the northern province of Son La in the field. Theprovince has sought GI and origin protection for all local coffee products fromraw beans to roasted and powdered coffee. The protection has provided a firmfoundation for businesses to gain a foothold in the domestic market andincrease exports.

Son La has been able to connect processors and growers in the coffeeproduction chain, which facilitate the establishment of stable material growingzones and the application of quality-control standards such as 4C, UTZ in cultivation.

As a result, Son La coffee, though new to the domestic market, hasreceived good response from the market, according to Huan. -VNA