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Vietnam's Ethnic Communities Cultivate Premium Organic Coffee

Ethnic minorities in Vietnam are attempting to grow higher-quality organic coffee beans to polish the reputation of Vietnamese coffee. They emphasize that Vietnam, known as the world's second-largest coffee producer, offers much more than just instant coffee.

A Family Legacy of Coffee Cultivation

Rolan Co Lieng slowly moves through a greenhouse, examining caramel-yellow coffee beans that have been drying in mesh nets for several months. She picks up a handful to smell their aroma—these beans will soon be ground, roasted, and sold to customers in Vietnam, Japan, and Germany.

Rolan comes from a traditional small-scale coffee farming family of the K'Ho people, an ethnic group that has lived for centuries at the foot of Lang Biang Mountain in Da Lat. Rolan's parents grew coffee trees, as did her grandparents, who received Arabica coffee seeds from the French in the early 1920s.

Rolan fell in love with coffee at a very young age. She told Deutsche Welle: "Growing up, my parents would have a cup of Nestlé coffee every morning at 4 AM before going to church. That sweet, rich aroma fascinated me. After they left, I would always smell the cup and try to taste the coffee by dipping my fingers in it."

Today, she has transformed her passion for coffee into her work. Together with members of the K'Ho community, she established a cooperative to change the perception of Vietnamese coffee and protect their community's traditions.

Challenges in the Global Coffee Market

Vietnam is the world's second-largest coffee producer, surpassed only by Brazil. However, coffee enthusiasts often look down upon or have never even heard of Vietnamese coffee beans. Denis Seudieu, Chief Economist at the International Coffee Organization, explains that this is because 95% of Vietnam's coffee production consists of Robusta beans, which are easier to grow than Arabica beans but contain higher caffeine content and have a more bitter taste, making them considered inferior.

"Markets and consumers prefer the flavor and profile of Arabica beans, so Robusta beans often end up as instant coffee," Seudieu explains. "From a marketing perspective, telling people your coffee uses Robusta beans doesn't create a positive image, so there aren't many advertisements for Vietnamese coffee."

In the 1990s, Vietnamese farmers earned very meager profits from coffee cultivation because the government purchased all coffee beans at a single price. This situation only changed after private markets opened up.

The K'Ho Community's Organic Approach

The K'Ho community used to grow both types of coffee beans, but to help the world better understand Vietnamese coffee and increase profits, they now exclusively grow Arabica beans. Lang Biang Mountain provides fertile soil for cultivating Arabica beans, and those grown at higher altitudes are of even better quality.

Rolan explains that they use organic farming methods, avoiding any chemical crops and instead applying compost made from kitchen waste. They also plant many different types of plants between coffee trees to provide shade and increase oxygen levels.

The K'Ho community exports these organic coffee beans but also roasts them themselves—a rare practice among Vietnamese coffee farmers. Typically, coffee farmers sell unprocessed beans directly to large manufacturers for instant coffee production.