During a press conference recently held in Hanoi about thesecond Vietnam Coffee Day 2018, Tu said the global market share of Vietnamesecoffee soared from 1 percent in 1991 to 17 percent in 2017.
Vietnam is now the world’s second largest exporter of coffeebeans and the largest robusta exporter. Coffee export accounts for nearly 10percent of the country’s total shipment of agro-forestry-fisheries.
Though the prices of arabica and robusta coffee hit 12-yearand five-year low, respectively, processed coffee export is growing strongly,mostly ground and instant coffee.
As many as 2.1 million packets of instant coffee, equivalentto 120,000 tonnes, were shipped abroad during the 2017-2018 crop. TheVietnamese instant coffee is now available in 70 countries and territoriesworldwide.
There are 20 instant coffee processing plants across thecountry with a total capacity of 75,280 tonnes per year, not to mentionhundreds of small-scale processing facilities with a total capacity of around70,000 tonnes.
Almost processed coffee products are shipped abroad, many ofthem are popular and sold in Walmart chain in Chile, Brazil, Mexico and China.Instant coffee is also favoured at home with well-known brands such asVinacafe, Trung Nguyen, Me Trang, Thang Loi and Minh Tien.
Processed coffee has highly added value with prices of70-100 million VND per tonne compared to 32-36 million VND per tonne in coffeebeans. However, processed coffee accounts for nearly 10 percent of the totalcoffee beans nationwide.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development forecastthat at least 25 percent of coffee beans will be processed into ground andinstant coffee by 2020.
In 2016, the Prime Minister allowed the designation ofDecember 10 as Vietnam Coffee Day and decided to add high-quality coffee intothe list of national products.
Following the success of the first Vietnam Coffee Day heldin Da Lat city, the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, the second editionthemed “Sustainable Vietnamese coffee development” will take place in Gia Nghiatown, the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong from December 9-11.
As many as 33 foreign organisations and firms such as theWorld Coffee Organisation, the ASEAN Coffee Federation, the Asia Coffee Associationand importers from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India,Myanmar and Eastern African countries will attend the event.
During the event, an exhibition with 50 stalls willintroduce premium coffee products from prestigious businesses andcoffee-growing areas.-VNA