Coffee festival aims to stimulate the Central Highlands economy

Coffee has become one of the main crops helping ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands develop their economy.

Positioning Vietnamese coffee brand

In recent years, coffee has been one of the important export items of many countries and accounts for a large proportion of the world trade balance. Vietnam is the second largest coffee exporting country in the world, exporting to nearly 100 countries, with an annual output of over 1 million tons.

Vietnam's coffee industry has gradually asserted its position when exports exceeded the 4 billion USD mark for the first time in 2023. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development forecasts that in 2024, coffee export turnover will certainly exceed 5 billion USD, and may even reach 6 billion USD - the highest level in history. Coffee is still the main agricultural product of the Central Highlands provinces, helping farmers, especially ethnic minorities in the area, have a stable income.

In fact, the sustainable value of the coffee sector has increased year by year. According to statistics, the total coffee growing area in the country is currently about 710,000 hectares, of which about 650,000 hectares are being harvested. As of early 2023, the coffee growing area in Dak Lak province is more than 212,912 hectares (accounting for 32.37% of agricultural land). Of which, the coffee output alone is up to more than 550,000 tons (accounting for 1/3 of the total output in the country).

Gia Lai province is also growing about 99,000 hectares of coffee, of which 46,000 hectares are coffee according to 4C and Organic standards, applying irrigation technology for coffee. The total coffee area of ​​Dak Nong province is currently about 141,000 hectares, accounting for 23% of the agricultural land area; accounting for 59.6% of the total perennial crop area of ​​the province.

Lam Dong has many advantages for coffee development, with a cultivated area of ​​about 173,000 hectares. The total coffee cultivation area in Kon Tum in 2024 will increase sharply to nearly 30,000 hectares.

Exhibition of Top 10 Vietnamese specialty coffees evaluated and ranked at Vietnam Amazing Cup 2022.

That vast raw material area is always associated with tens of thousands of farming households, of which more than 60% of ethnic minorities directly produce coffee in the area, helping them solve jobs, increase income, and improve their lives. In the following years, coffee will remain a key economic sector, a driving force for the socio-economic development of the Central Highlands region, contributing positively to the economic development of the country.

Coffee is considered a “billion-dollar tree”, but sustainable development of the “black pearl” is a burning question for farmers. Recently, coffee prices have increased, at times reaching over 130,000 VND/kg. The increase in coffee prices has encouraged farmers to plant new or replant coffee gardens.

According to the Project on Developing Vietnamese Specialty Coffee for the 2021-2030 period issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, by 2030, Vietnam will develop 19,000 hectares of specialty coffee, with an output of about 11,000 tons. Along with that, building a brand of Vietnamese specialty coffee to meet the increasing demand of the domestic market and increase competitiveness in the world market, contributing to the development of Vietnamese coffee.

Consolidate coffee to continue to be one of the country's top 5 export products and affirm the important position of Vietnamese coffee in the world coffee industry.

Central Highlands people introduce Buon Ma Thuot coffee at Dak Lak Provincial Museum during the 7th Coffee Festival 2023.

Coffee Festival aims to stimulate the economy of the Central Highlands

Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Festival is recognized by the Prime Minister as a national festival, held every two years in March. This is the most beautiful time of the year in the Central Highlands and is also the occasion for many cultural events. Coffee has also officially become a representative image of Vietnam, in the economic field reaching out to the world.

With a national scale and international vision, all activities of the Coffee Festival are "coffeeized", creating a colorful and flavorful coffee world with many activities taking place at the festival.

The vast space to create value for coffee has only just begun to be exploited. As the world's leading coffee exporter, Vietnam is aiming to build the Central Highlands region into the coffee capital of the world. Coffee festivals will be the highlight to promote the Central Highlands Coffee brand, develop Vietnamese specialty coffee and build the image, potential, and strengths of local tourism, promote investment in the field of coffee processing and agricultural products in the Central Highlands.

In addition to promoting the Central Highlands coffee brand, the Coffee Festival also aims to raise awareness and action of the community in preserving, introducing and promoting the unique cultural identity of ethnic groups in the Central Highlands.

At the opening ceremony of the 8th Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Festival in 2023, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang requested that it is necessary to promote the development of high-quality coffee and Vietnamese specialty coffee with special and unique flavors certified according to international standards to meet the increasing demand and consumer tastes; increase the value of the coffee industry chain, especially increase direct profits for farmers.

The festival aims to honor the coffee tree, a crop that has brought prosperity and abundance to the highlands, affirming the longevity in preserving cultural identity, and at the same time serving as a bridge to bring the image of ethnic minorities to the whole country.

At the same time, through Coffee Festivals to build a unique Vietnamese coffee culture, promote the image of the legendary land, rich in national cultural identity. Coffee Festivals are an opportunity to introduce, promote, help explore and awaken the investment potential, indigenous tourism, rich in cultural identity of the Central Highlands, turn ethnic villages into a unique cultural tourism center, with many valuable tourism packages and many investment and commercial services supporting tourism, contributing to economic development.

Currently, the tourism industry is striving to achieve the goal of renewing tourism products that are imbued with the cultural and historical characteristics of this land. In addition to the "Elephant brand" in the Central Highlands, a tourism product considered unique, "coffee tourism", is being invested in and exploited by tourism businesses. With the idea of ​​turning coffee production, processing and trading into a unique tourism product, some travel companies such as Dam San and Dak Lak Touris have built itineraries to bring tourists to visit and experience this new product at many locations.

Clean coffee gardens with high productivity, along with coffee processing facilities, are becoming attractive and familiar destinations for tourists. Many travel tours have gradually led tourists to learn, research and explore cultural and historical values ​​closely related to coffee. At the same time, many handicraft products from coffee trees have also been commercialized, such as coffee tree statues with the characteristics of indigenous culture of the Central Highlands.

The 9th Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Festival with the theme “Buon Ma Thuot – Destination of the world’s coffee”, will take place in Buon Ma Thuot City and some localities in Dak Lak province in 2023.

Over 100 years of development, along with creating great economic value for communities, coffee has also created an international character for Central Highlands agriculture, when many farmers and ethnic minorities have known how to follow market news from agricultural product exchanges around the world. Coffee has become the glue that binds the cultures of ethnic groups from all 3 regions of the North, Central and South.

Now, many regions in the Central Highlands have more colorful festivals, and each festival cannot lack the flavor of coffee along with stories of production and business of this plant. From the Coffee Festival, stories about coffee and coffee culture are more deeply engraved in this land.

In addition, it also aims to raise awareness and actions of the community on preserving, introducing and promoting the unique cultural identity of the Central Highlands ethnic groups, not only with Vietnamese coffee beans, but also with other values ​​such as the Central Highlands Gong Cultural Space.

Artisans create handicraft products from coffee trees.

Vietnamese coffee is not only known for its output, which is among the top in the world, but also for creating a very unique Vietnamese coffee culture. The taste of Vietnamese coffee is increasingly flying high and far with big brands such as Trung Nguyen Coffee, Vinacafe, NesCafe… bringing great economic benefits to the country.

Entering the period of international economic integration, to continuously affirm and develop the Vietnamese coffee brand, it is necessary to be creative, have a sustainable development strategy and reach new heights. Localities in the Central Highlands have continuously organized activities to promote, honor and affirm the value of coffee, raise social awareness of sustainable coffee development, and at the same time request relevant ministries, departments and branches to build mechanisms and policies in line with the trend of sustainable coffee development; pay attention, support and create the best conditions for the Vietnamese coffee industry to develop comprehensively and firmly.

In March 2025, the 9th Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Festival with the theme “Buon Ma Thuot – Destination of world coffee”, took place in Buon Ma Thuot City and some localities in the province, once again affirming the value of coffee in promoting the economy of the Central Highlands region.

Opening of the 8th Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Festival

Source: https://baodantoc.vn/le-hoi-ca-phe-huong-den-kich-thich-kinh-te-vung-tay-nguyen-1729500928429.htm