Vietnam’s coffee industry should focus more on the local market as this is a way of ensuring sustainable development, international experts said.
 |
| Robério Oliveira Silva, director of the Coffee Department of the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food, chats with Dang Le Nguyen Vu, general director of Trung Nguyen Corporation |
The industry is still far from achieving sustainable development due to its heavy reliance on foreign markets, they said at the Buon Ma Thuot Sustainable Coffee Development conference held on Sunday in Dak Lak Province, the country’s key coffee growing area.
José Sette, executive director of the International Coffee Organization, said Vietnam was the world’s second biggest coffee exporter and biggest Robusta exporter with 18.4 million bags last year, but it exported almost all of its output.
Local coffee consumption in Brazil and Vietnam is in stark contrast, Sette said, adding Brazil exports nearly 40 million bags of coffee but saves 19 million bags for local sale while Vietnam sets aside just over 5% of its output for local consumption.
Robério Oliveira Silva, director of the Coffee Department of the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food, said the mistake that producing countries usually make is to neglect local demand.
“We should learn from the past that neglecting the local consumption will make the producing country suffer if turbulence breaks out on global markets,” he said.
According to Silva, Brazil is prepared for any scenario. “We have set up coffee funds in order to protect farmers from losing out when coffee prices on the market collapse. We have to maintain their investments in farming and stockpiles. One of our rules in sustainable development is local consumption.”
“We compete in the global market on the one hand and try to satisfy local demand and stabilize prices on the other hand,” said. He reckons Vietnam has an important role in the global coffee industry and sustainability should be its key target for the time being.
Professor Tom Canon, economic strategist from the UK’s Liverpool University, who is set to publish a book on coffee, insisted national commitment be essential for a bright future in the coffee industry.
National commitment has to be real and deep, so Vietnam or any producer has to push domestic consumption, he said.