According to Mr. Lương Văn Tự, Chairman of the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association (Vicofa), Vietnamese coffee exports account for about 14% of total global coffee trade—and if you look at Robusta alone, the share rises to roughly 60%.
In theory, that level of market share should give Vietnam the ability to influence world prices. In reality, however, Vietnamese export coffee prices are about 100 USD per ton lower than competitors’.
One of the main reasons is inconsistent quality: growers often harvest ripe and unripe cherries together. This long-standing habit has become ingrained among many Vietnamese coffee farmers.
Many farmers justify picking both ripe and green cherries at once by saying they fear theft—a genuine concern in the Central Highlands, Vietnam’s key coffee-growing region. Faced with the risk of losing their entire crop, they follow the principle “better to pick green than lose everything.” But this practice sacrifices quality for the sake of security.
Mr. Lương suggests that farmers form neighborhood alliances to protect their coffee collectively. Such cooperation could reduce theft and remove a key excuse for early harvesting. Yet, he stresses, theft is not the only reason; the deeper cause is habit and cost: harvesting all at once cuts labor expenses. Compounding the issue, many traders buy bulk coffee (“cà phê xô”) without separating ripe from unripe beans, which encourages the practice.
By contrast, Arabica growers in Quảng Trị Province typically pick 90% fully ripe cherries, and in Laos, according to Mr. Nguyễn Văn An, CEO of Thái Hòa Coffee Company, the share of ripe cherries purchased reaches 97%. This shows that when buyers compete to secure coffee—even if it includes many green cherries—they reinforce the very habit that should have been eliminated long ago.
As a result, even though Vietnamese coffee is often praised for its flavor, its world market price remains lower than that of Brazil or Colombia.
Every year Nestlé purchases 200,000–250,000 tons of Vietnamese coffee—around one-quarter of the country’s exports—to make its popular instant coffee. Yet the price of raw Vietnamese coffee beans continues to lag behind that of other leading producers.
For Vietnam to achieve its true value as a global coffee powerhouse, much work remains—starting with tightening and improving harvesting practices.