Anyone who comes to Buon Ma Thuot City in the Central Highland province of Dak Lak wants to enjoy the fragrance of its coffee and bring some home as presents. When being asked about Buon Ma Thuot coffee, many foreign tourists visiting the city and sipping its coffee reply “Excellent”. Paradoxically, it is exported at low prices.

In 2006, Vietnam exported 912,553 tonnes of coffee and fetched more than US$1.121 billion. Coffee also joined the US$1 billion club for products with export value of more than US$1 billion. The product now makes up 13 percent of the country’s total export value - a good sign for the coffee industry.

However, figures released by the Vietnam Coffee and Cacao Association at a seminar last March surprised many experts. In the 2005-2006 season, more than 600,000 bags of Vietnamese coffee were refused at the Antwerp port in Belgium, making up 72 percent of total export batches. One million out of 1.4 million bags were also turned down at 10 other ports elsewhere in Europe.

What are the reasons behind this? Market experts explained that Vietnam’s criteria to classify coffee are different from other parts of the world. Vietnam has applied TCVN4193-93 standard based on three criteria: the percentage of humidity, broken black beans and mixtures, while other countries classify the product based on the percentage of defective beans. This means Vietnam has so far exported coffee containing a large volume of defective coffee which should have been classified first before being shipped abroad. Once these batches of coffee are refused at foreign ports, dealers often offer lower prices, and coffee export value is reduced dramatically in the long run.

“Our classification is not professional, and as a result, the image of Vietnamese coffee gets worse in the world,” said Doan Trieu Nhan, vice president of the Vietnam Coffee and Cacao Association.

In 2005, Vietnam completed the new standard, TCVN 4193:2005, which is recognised internationally. Accordingly, each batch of export coffee must have a quality certificate. Yet, Vietnam does not have an agency responsible for inspecting and managing the quality of export coffee and coffee businesses still apply the outdated standard. The unprofessional way of classifying coffee has damaged the image of Vietnamese coffee.

For a world leading coffee exporter like Brazil, it has developed a system of international criteria on quality and hygiene for its farm products, and coffee in particular, which have been strictly observed by export businesses. An independent agency has been established to monitor the application of the criteria before the products are shipped abroad.

Many coffee exporters complain that their foreign partners have known very little about Vietnamese coffee because they do not know where to get information about the product. At a training session on e-commerce in Buon Ma Thuot City, trainees were advised to search for the trademark of the Vietnamese coffee on the net, but they failed.      

Vietnamese people have been familiar with well-known coffee trademarks such as Vinacafe, Trung Nguyen coffee, Thang Loi coffee and Thu Ha coffee. Many think that with these trademarks, foreigners will know more about Vietnamese coffee. It is not always true. There is no denying that in recent times, domestic businesses have made every effort over the past few years to promote their trademarks abroad. But it is not enough. Vietnamese coffee will find it hard to go further abroad if businesses develop their trademarks in an ad hoc manner.

According to experts, in addition to providing assistance and encouraging businesses to promote their products, the State should map out a national scheme to build a national-level trademark for its coffee.

It is not an easy task. The Minister of Science and Technology announced the trademark for Buon Me Thuot coffee at a coffee festival held in the Central Highland province of Dak Lak in December 2005. Many thought that Buon Me Thuot coffee would be known worldwide and coffee growers would earn higher incomes. Against their expectations, the trademark has not been promoted effectively, particularly in its management, application and promotion. 

Dak Lak province has about 100,000 ha under Buon Me Thuot coffee cultivation. It is not easy to identify and certify this acreage geographically. It is also not easy to identify categories of coffee meeting registered criteria. There is a long way to go to fully exploit this trademark. The Dak Lak provincial Department of Science and Technology is drafting the project “Managing, Exploiting and Developing Buon Me Thuot Coffee Acreage” for submission to the Intellectual Property Agency next year.