Coffee produced in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak have been exported to 60 countries and territories in all continents, with 138,000 tonnes shipped abroad since the beginning of this year, up 9.2 percent year on year.

According to the provincial People’s Committee, exports to most markets remain stable, with major customers being Germany, Japan, Italy, the US, Spain, the Republic of Korea, Switzerland, France and Russia.

Dak Lak boasts the country’s largest coffee growing area with over 200,000 ha, making up 30 percent of the nation’s coffee land and producing up to 400,000 tonnes of beans annually.

Coffee exporters in the province have cooperated with farmers to shift strongly to “clean” production in order to meet increasingly strict demand of importers. An estimated 41,000 farms with a total acreage of 61,458ha in Dak Lak are now following standardised coffee-growing models, such as 4C Code of Conduct, Rainforest Alliance, Fair Trade and UTZ Certified.

A certificate of geographical indication (GI) for the Buon Ma Thuot coffee trademark in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak has also helped increase the value of coffee beans shipped abroad, according to the Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Association.

As many as 10 coffee producers in the province are entitled to use the GI. They are managing a combined coffee growing area of 15,067 ha, yielding around 46,620 tonnes of coffee beans annually.

Protected geographical indication (PGI) for Buon Ma Thuot coffee was registered in Vietnam in 2005. The province has been completing necessary procedures to gain PGIs in 15 countries and territories in the world.

The province plans to continue expanding coffee-growing areas licensed to use the PGI and will call for the support of the European Trade Policy and Investment Support Project (EU-MUTRAP) to help Buon Ma Thuot coffee enter the European market soon.
Vietnam exported 1.04 million tonnes of coffee in the first half of this year, earning 2.12 billion USD, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The figures represented increases of 31.7 percent in volume and 24.7 percent in value on a yearly basis.-VNA