The main reason Vietnamese coffee loses value on the world market is that production, processing, and even trading practices still fail to meet international standards. Finding ways to develop sustainable coffee was the key topic at a conference co-organized in Da Lat (Lam Dong) by the Global Coffee Platform 4C and Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
According to Melanie Rutten-Suelz, Executive Director of the Global Coffee Platform 4C, although Vietnam has become the world’s second-largest coffee producer and exporter—with 525,000 hectares and more than one million tons of annual output—only 12 producers so far have been certified as meeting the 4C Common Code. Together, these certified operations cover just about 15,000 hectares.
One major issue is poor planting material. The Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association reports that in the three provinces with the country’s largest coffee areas—Đắk Lắk, Đắk Nông, and Lam Dong—only 25–35 % of the coffee in Đắk Lắk and Đắk Nông and just 4–5 % in Lam Dong is planted with selected varieties. Across the Central Highlands’ roughly 490,000 hectares, only about 1.7 % of commercial coffee is grown from high-yield, high-quality grafted stock.
Coffee farming in Vietnam is also unsustainable in other ways. To chase volume, farmers often over-invest, applying fertilizer and irrigation at rates 10–23 % higher than recommended. Chemical fertilizer use is unbalanced, pesticide management is weak, and shade trees are rarely planted. As a result, coffee plants quickly decline when weather turns unfavorable.
Harvesting techniques are also rarely followed. For various reasons many farmers strip both ripe and unripe cherries; processing skills remain poor; exporters often skip quality certification and pay little attention to quality standards when purchasing beans.
Đoàn Triệu Nhạn, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association, stressed that Vietnamese coffee producers and traders must raise product quality, ensure food safety, and adopt international standards and codes of practice to restore the reputation of Vietnamese coffee in global markets.
The Global Coffee Platform 4C is a collaborative initiative linking coffee growers, traders, processors, and civil-society organizations committed to economic, social, and environmental responsibility. Its members—currently 127 in dozens of countries—must pledge to avoid ten prohibited practices, such as using banned pesticides, clearing primary forests, damaging natural resources, or engaging in unethical business dealings. The 4C organization regularly audits members for compliance and grants certification only to those who meet its Common Code requirements.