VN coffee needs stronger link to farmers

Vietnamese coffee needs to carve a brand identity for itself based on a system that guarantees a fair price for farmers as well as an environmentally-friendly production process, says Peter Timmer, Emeritus Professor of Development Studies, Harvard University.

Timmer spoke to Thanh Hieu on the sidelines of an international seminar on Sustainable Coffee Development held at the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak last Sunday.

What do you think of the prospects of the coffee industry in Viet Nam?

Well, it looks pretty promising. We’ve heard that the world market is very supportive right now. I was very impressed with the good certified presentations. They have clearly figured out the technology that’s reaching farmers and getting a certified product to consumers. It’s very small-scale. The question is: Can it be scaled up and reach larger numbers of farmers? But it’s exciting to see the technology has been tried. I was very pleased to hear that.

Despite Viet Nam being ranked the world’s second largest coffee exporter after Brazil, the development of the country’s coffee industry remains rather unsteady and exposed to vagaries of the global market. Coffee growers often suffer big losses and traders have had to face big risks. What can be done to ensure Viet Nam’s coffee industry to develop sustainably?

What you have just described is a very traditional commodity system where the farmer is not connected to the consumer and just sells to whatever trader and it just disappears. And the coffee is anonymous. It’s pretty clear that the future for Vietnamese coffee has to be more value-added, (have) higher visibility in consumption, and (ensure) a significantly higher price back to farmers so that they get higher incomes and stay on as coffee farmers. It’s very true that there has been ups and downs. That’s the nature of the commodity system. What we need to do is to find a way to make Vietnamese coffee have an identity. And I think we make some progress today in how to do that.

To compete with other coffee-growing countries, what criteria does Vietnamese coffee need to meet?

Sustainability. Sustainability. Sustainability. You are going to have to convince consumers in the world that you are growing a very high-quality coffee, identify the farmers (who people care about) and (produce coffee) in a way that is not damaging to the environment. That will be the trademark then for Vietnamese coffee. Costa Rica can do it. There are still some countries out there that are trying to establish their brand image.

Viet Nam came very rapidly into the world coffee market. Thirty years ago, nobody thought about Viet Nam as a coffee producer. Now you’re number two. That’s a quantity success. It is not yet a quality success. That’s the big challenge.

What would be the key factors in developing a strategy for sustainable development of coffee cultivation and production?

You have got to reach farmers with knowledge and technology. It is not my sense yet that we’ve figured out that the farmer has to be at the centre of this, not the trader or the government. It’s going to have to be the farmer. Viet Nam has very smart farmers but they need access to knowledge, technology and good markets. They need to know what they can do. That’s possible but it’s not happening yet.

What is the key to promoting Vietnamese coffee more effectively in the global market?

Well, I thought the discussion about having a brand visibility (pertains to this question)… having a vision that drives the creation of a brand. I think we will need leadership. I’m not convinced that is something the Government can do. The leadership is going to have to come from the private sector. The Government has things it must do and assist in the (establishment of) associations, quality standards, geographic identities and the trademark things that accord legal protection. The Government has to be able to do that. It cannot create the brand image. — VNS

Tags: Vietnam Coffee, vietnam coffee exports