Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam has set up a project topromote high-quality Vietnamese coffee backed by about 170 billion VND (7.5million USD).

The sum will be funded by the State with 110 billion VND.The remainder will come from businesses and coffee growers.

The project, approved by the Ministry of Agriculture andRural Development (MARD), will run from next year until 2023. It aims todevelop connections between producers and consumers.

It also involves construction of large-scale, high-qualitygrowing areas, with updated drying systems, storage facilities and processingplants. Each area will be able to grow an estimated capacity of 2.7 tonnes ofRobusta coffee - the coffee that has given Vietnam it’s beverage reputation -and two tonnes of Arabica (the coffee most common in Western countries) perhectare.

The project is expected to improve growers’ incomes byadding 5 percent to coffee values by 2020 and 7 percent by 2023.

It will also focus on building a Vietnamese coffee brandable to compete with rivals at home and abroad, and raising export prices tomatch other countries.

The project will enable up to 20 enterprises to use wetprocessing technology, enzymes and micro-organisms to improve quality and reducepost-harvest losses. The models are expected to earn a total of 2 trillion VND peryear in the future.

According to a ministry report, Vietnam earned 2.69 billion USDfrom the export of 1.17 million tonnes of coffee in the first 10 months of thisyear. This was a drop of 22.7 percent in volume and 2.5 percent in valuecompared with the same period last year. However, it is noteworthy that theaverage export price of coffee in the first nine months was 2,286.7 USD pertonne, up 27.5 percent year-on-year.

Chairman of the Vietnam Cocoa Coffee Association (Vicofa) LuongVan Tu said about 90 percent of Vietnamese coffee for export was in the form ofcoffee beans, the remainder was ground and instant coffee.

He said the demand for coffee in the world market was stillincreasing. Vietnam freely exports coffee to 140 countries and territories.

“The drop in volume exported this year is not related to thedifficulty of the market or the quality of Vietnamese coffee, but mainly due toa drought in 2016 that led to crops failures,” said Tu. "In addition, thedomestic consumption of coffee has increased in recent years.”

According to Tu, Vietnam has competitive prices thanks tohigh yields of about 2.4 tonnes per ha, while the average world coffee yield isless than 2 tonnes per ha.

It is predicted that this year, turnover from coffee exportswill reach 3 billion USD from a total of 1.3 million tonnes.

Vietnam took 160 years to become the world’s second-largestproducer and processor of coffee. In 1991, the country’s coffee output reached1 percent of the world market share. By 2015-16, it occupied nearly 20 percentof the world market share.

Vifoca estimates that the domestic coffee industry needs toaccelerate the processing of ground roasted coffee, instant coffee and otherproducts to reach an export value of 5 billion USD - 6 billion USD by 2030.-VNA