Vietnam Coffee Day 2018: sustainable coffee development

Continuing the success of the first Vietnam coffee day in 2017 in Lam Dong, the Vietnam Coffee-Cocoa Association (Vicofa) will organise Vietnam Coffee Day 2018 in Gia Nghia town, Dak Nong province.

Vietnam Coffee Day will showcase Vietnam's very best across the coffee value chain

Taking place on December 9-11, the event is co-organised by Vicofa in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), the Dak Nong People's Committee, and the Institute of Social Sciences of Central Highlands.

The programme will have a variety of activities such as an expo of more than 50 booths to promote quality coffee products from reputable businesses and coffee growing areas. This year’s event will be the first time with a coffee tasting event. Besides the conference, the event will also host a business exchange programme connecting importers and exporters inside and outside the country.

In particular, the organising board also organised the Nescafé Plan competition to create a playground for coffee farmers and honour them.

This year's event will attract the participation of nearly 40 major international organisations and businesses, such as the chairman of International Coffee Organization (ICO), the chairman of the ASEAN Coffee Federation (ACF), and coffee importers from numerous countries.

Luong Van Tu, chairman of Vicofa, said at the press conference that this is a cultural tourism event aiming to promote the product and the quality of Vietnamese coffee in general and Dak Nong coffee in particular. This is also an occasion to honour businesses and individuals working in the field of coffee production, an opportunity for enterprises, organisations, and individuals in the growing, processing and trading of coffee in and outside of the province to meet, exchange, and sign co-operation contracts to expand their consumption markets.

The first Vietnamese Coffee Day titled “New development stage of the Vietnamese coffee industry” took place in Da Lat city of Lam Dong province on December 9-11, 2017. The event attracted one million people, enterprises, and organisations.

On December 10, 1961, Ho Chi Minh visited Dong Hieu coffee farm in Phu Quy, Nghe An. During this special visit, the Prime Minister announced that this day would be "Vietnam Coffee Day," and chose coffee as the country’s main agricultural product (Official Letter No.6306/VPCP-KTN on July 29, 2016).

Vietnam is the world's second largest producer and exporter of coffee (especially robusta), accounting for nearly 15 per cent of the world’s coffee production, nearly 19 per cent of the market, and the fourth largest coffee growing area in the world (after Brazil, Indonesia, and Colombia).

According to Vicofa’s statistics, Dak Lak, Lam Dong, and Dak Nong are the three leading coffee growers in Vietnam. Dak Lak is the province with the largest coffee growing area, but only produces as much as the second province in terms of acreage, Lam Dong.

According to Vicofa statistics, Vietnam has about 26,000 cafe shops and 500 coffee exporters.