Mr. Do Ha Nam, Vice President of Vicofa, forecasts that Vietnam’s exports will reach more than 1.5 million tons, with a turnover of 3 billion USD, an increase of about 20% compared to 2013.
From the beginning of the 2013/14 crop year (October 2013), Vietnam has exported about 700 tons of coffee (accounting for 40% of the forecast volume), with the export price at a high level of 2,000-2,200 USD/ton. It is forecasted that in the second quarter, coffee exports will continue to be favorable and the whole year’s will remain at this level.
This is the fourth consecutive year that Vietnamese coffee has reached its peak in terms of export volume and turnover over the past 30 years.
Thus, for 4 consecutive years, Vietnam’s coffee industry annually exports over 1.2 million tons of green coffee, achieving an annual turnover of over 2.7 billion USD and keeping the export price at $2,000/ton and above.
Coffee is bringing income to farmers (illustration)
Challenges and difficulties
However, apart from the results achieved, the coffee industry is facing a number of difficulties and challenges such as: out of 622,167 hectares of coffee being produced in the country, there are currently about 86 hectares of over 20-year old coffee (accounting for 15%); about 140,000 ha of 15-20-year old (accounting for 25%).
Besides, there are other challenges such as coffee quality, building and developing a brand to improve coffee value, competition in processing and consuming of instant coffee, roasting, etc.
Moreover, in the coming time, when a number of international trade agreements come into effect or are negotiated, such as: ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), The Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP), Vietnam – EU trade agreement…, Vietnamese coffee products will face more challenges.
In addition, there are 3 disadvantages of the coffee industry: the production model with too many small households, too many enterprises, and the main export of green coffee…
Tasks and solutions in the coming time
Faced with these challenges, Vicofa sets out a number of key tasks for the 2014-2017 term, particularly,
Continue to propose the Government to soon approve the sustainable development project for Vietnam’s coffee industry. In which, the production area is stable at 570,000 ha, improving productivity to keep output about 1.3 to 1.4 million tons, exporting over 1 million tons/year. Keeping the export market share of green coffee about 17%; proposing plans to reorganize the coffee industry to overcome 3 disadvantages: the production model with too many small households, too many enterprises, and the main export of green coffee…
Implement the coffee replanting program: regarding quality, strengthening propaganda and encouraging growers to pick coffee cherries with the ripe ratio of over 80%. At the same time, directing businesses to offer higher purchase prices for coffee with a high ripe ratio to support and change inappropriate habits that reduce the value of coffee. Directing coffee growers and businesses to focus on the intensive investment process of coffee fields and combine with shade tree planting and high-quality coffee production to implement the production process according to 4C, UTZ and RA certificates.
Promote investment in processing roasted, ground and soluble coffee for export in order to increase added value for the coffee industry. Regarding trading, strengthen trade promotion to expand markets to target to the emerging markets such as China, Japan, ASEAN and Eastern Europe; at the same time, promoting marketing and expanding domestic consumption to increase consumption to 15% of total coffee production in the next 5 years.
Vicofa also proposed the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to submit to the Government to make the temporary coffee storage program a regular policy of the industry. At the same time, proposing the Ministry of Finance to establish the Vietnam Coffee Development Fund instead of the Coffee Export Insurance Fund.
