Hanoi (VNA)– The domestic agricultural sector is working to raise the quality and value ofVietnamese coffee given that coffee export turnover has yet to match thevolume.

Vietnam ships more than 1.5 million tonnes of coffee abroad each year, of which90 percent is raw coffee which yields low value.

Vietnamese coffee is exported to more than 80 countries and territoriesworldwide, with export revenue exceeding 3 billion USD, making up 14 percent ofthe market share and 10.4 percent of raw coffee export value globally, secondafter Brazil.

Vietnam’s top coffee importers are Germany, the US, Italy, Spain, Japan,Belgium, Russia, Algeria, the Philippines and China, which, together, accountfor 80 percent of the country’s total coffee export turnover.

However, during 2013-2017, the local coffee sector grew by only 6.57 percentannually mainly due to fluctuations on the global coffee market and the unbalanceddomestic coffee export structure.

Nguyen Quoc Toan, acting head of the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment (MARD)’s agricultural product processing and market developmentdepartment, said most Vietnamese exporters have yet to set up directconnections with foreign coffee roasting and grinding firms.

He also noted the low administrative capacity of local processing, business andexport enterprises, and weak foreign language and international commercialskills of Vietnamese coffee sales staff.

Besides, poor trade infrastructure, the lack of transaction and auction floors,unprofessional information and market price analysis services and other factorshave also hindered the sector’s growth, he said.

Vietnam has 150 coffee export firms, including 13 foreign direct investment(FDI) enterprises, along with more than 3,000 dealers purchasing coffee.However, only a third of them have raw processing factories for export, and upto 90 percent of domestic businesses and all FDI enterprises buy raw coffeethrough traders.

To improve added value for Vietnamese coffee, the MARD is implementing aproject on developing high-quality coffee.

The project aims to assist at least 10 businesses in completing wet coffeeprocessing,  improving coffee quality andreducing post-harvest losses, and about five to 10 others in buildinghigh-quality coffee production models.

Under the project, at least 10 firms will invest in production and deep processingof high-quality coffee products, thus ensuring added value for the coffee sector.

Toan underlined the need for the coffee sector to restructure, improveproduction chain value and maintain coffee area at about 600,000 ha and annual exportvolume of about 1.5-1.8 million tonnes.  

The sector will step up investment in infrastructure for production, especiallyharvesting, transporting, drying and preserving steps to ease post-harvestlosses; and encourage investment  incoffee planting, processing and consumption in the chain connectivity to formmodern businesses.

It also prioritises coffee roasting and grinding plants using cutting-edgetechnologies, each with annual capacity of at least 5,000 tonnes and instantcoffee processing mills with average capacity of no less than 500 tonnes peryear.

MARD Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam said the sector should select major groupsand businesses with adequate capacity in terms of capital, science-technologyand market to lead the value chain.

He also suggested maintaining traditional export markets while accessingpromising ones, with special attention paid to China, the EU and those joiningthe Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership(CPTPP) and the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).

With such efforts, Vietnam is expected to have more than 80 percent of rawcoffee processed industrially and 30- 40 percent of coffee processedintensively and branded by 2030.-VNA