“The sector should make great efforts to fulfill two main targets including maintaining its place as the second biggest producer and exporter of coffee beans in the world and stepping up the processing of instant and roasted coffee,” he said, adding that these aim to increase export value from the current $3 billion to $6 billion by 2030.
Tu added that the coffee industry needed a big capital and comprehensive solutions to increase output and product quality.

The coffee industry needs a big capital and comprehensive solutions to increase output and product quality.

“If the investment speed in instant and roasted coffees is faster, time to meet the $6 billion target would be shortened. Currently, many foreign groups have been investing in Vietnam’s coffee industry due to its abundant material areas and preferential tax,” he said.
For example, Indian Tata Coffee Limited invested in an instant coffee processing plant with a total investment of $60 million in the southern province of Binh Duong.
According to Tu, the coffee sector has been growing impressively over the past three decades. Vietnam’s coffee output made up just 1 per cent of world market shares in 1991, but that figure rose to nearly 20 per cent in the 2015-2016 crop year.
However, the industry has been affected by climate changes. Last year, the sector suffered the most severe drought in the past 30 years. Meanwhile, the areas of old coffee trees, which need to re-plant in the next five years, were up to 160,000 ha. The re-farming progress has been slow in the Central Highlands region.
The country’s coffee exports dropped 20.5 percent in volume in the first nine months of this year, but the value still inched up 1.3 percent to $2.55 billion as export prices were on the increase, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
The average export price was $2,286 per ton, up 27.4 percent against the same period last year. The Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association (VICOFA) attributed the sharp decline in export volume to the decrease in domestic supply after the 2016-2017 crop failure.
However, the 2016-2017 annual crop is still considered favorable for Vietnam coffee exports as global coffee production was going down. Crop failure in Brazil was the main cause, pushing the coffee price up.
Last year, Vietnam shipped 1.79 million tons of coffee to get $3.36 billion, a year-on-year rise of 33.6 percent in volume and 25.6 percent in value.