Positive signs for Coffee exports

A Thong Nhat District’s farmer is taking care of coffee and expecting a good harvest.

Meanwhile, the country’s coffee export in the first nine months of 2020 reached USD 2.16 billion, fell by 1% in value over the same period in 2019. Compared with country’s decline in coffee exports, Dong Nai still maintains a good growth rate because the province attracts many large enterprises in coffee trading, processing and exporting.

A gradual recovery

Coffee is one of the key crops of Dong Nai, but in recent years, this crop area has continuously decreased. The whole province now has more than 10 thousand hectares of coffee trees, fell by thousands of hectares compared to the previous year. This area may continue to decrease in the coming time because farmers are no longer eager to grow coffee, because it is currently less profitable than many other crops.

Mr. Nguyen Van That, Deputy Director of Xuan Que Trade - Service - Agriculture Cooperative (Xuan Que Commune, Cam My District) commented that the current coffee area in this locality has decreased a lot compared to a few years ago. The remaining coffee gardens have also been pruned by farmers to intercrop new crops. However, according to coffee trading and production enterprises, in the integration phase, this is still the main agricultural product with many development advantages. The export potential of this item is still very large, so farmers do not worry about output risks or difficulties in consuming as many other agricultural products.

Ms. Pham Thi Bich Ha, representative of Son Lam Food Production and Trading Company Limited (Bien Hoa City) said, due to the impact of the COVID-19, the coffee consumption and export situation in the first 9 months of 2020 was not equal to every year, but it was not as difficult as forecasted. In the last months of this year, the export market will be more active due to the coming of a new harvest, export businesses focus on pushing goods to clear warehouses to prepare for new purchases. “In the past few years, coffee products no longer have good prices as in previous years due to supply pressure greater than demand in both domestic and world markets. Although in the year-end season, coffee production as well as export situation will get better, but coffee prices will be difficult to fluctuate when the new harvest is coming”, predicted Ms. Ha.

With the same point of view, Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong, owner of Phu Sy Coffee Production Facility (Xuan Truong Commune, Xuan Loc district) shared that the domestic coffee consumption market slowed down over the same period last year due to COVID-19’s influence. This owner expects that in the year-end production season, the consumer market will be more active.

Attracting investment in deep-processing

​Coffee packaging for export at G.C Food Company Limited in Trang Bom District. Photo: B.Nguyen

According to some businesses, Dong Nai’s coffee export and import still grew while the whole country declined because Dong Nai had the advantage of developing the coffee processing industry, especially investment in deep-processing. According to a report by Dong Nai Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the whole province has 29 coffee processing enterprises and more than 38 small production establishments.

Under project of Improving the Competitiveness of Agricultural Products of Dong Nai Province in the context of international economic integration approved by the Provincial People’s Committee in 2019, coffee is still in the list of its 7 strong agricultural products groups. Dong Nai is one of the country’s leading producers of coffee area and production. In particular, Dong Nai’s competitive advantage is to attract many foreign-invested enterprises and enterprises to invest in coffee processing factories in which there are a number of large-scale investment enterprises, taking the first step in leading the deep-processing value chain.

Dr. Dang Kim Khoi, Director of the Center for Agricultural Policy Advisory (under the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development), consultant unit of Dong Nai province’s agricultural product competitiveness improvement in the context of economic integration, said that Dong Nai has the most potential in Vietnam to become the leading instant coffee processing center because it has many advantages such as: being close to major coffee material regions - Central Highlands; lose to major consuming markets such as Ho Chi Minh City, near major export ports; modern industrial zones, etc.; Dong Nai should set its target to become the leading industrial center – deep-processing agricultural products in Vietnam.

Phan Anh