The History of Coffee in Vietnam

A plant, a place, a policy

Coffee arriving in Vietnam did not make Vietnam a coffee country. The plant came in the 1850s, through French colonial channels. It found ground that suited it in the Central Highlands from the 1870s. Then it stayed marginal for over a century, until a policy change in 1986 led the country to plant several hundred thousand hectares in under two decades.

The arrival is the part usually told. The 1986 reforms explain far more of what Vietnamese coffee looks like today, so they get more of this page.

1857: the plant arrives

French Catholic missionaries brought arabica seedlings to northern and central Vietnam in 1857, planting around churches. The specific individual is named differently in different accounts and none of them cite a contemporary source, so the name should be treated as unverified. The date and the mechanism are not in dispute.

Arabica did not do well. Most of Vietnam is too low and too warm, and the humid climate brought coffee leaf rust. What survived, survived at altitude.

1870s onward: the highlands

Cultivation moved to the Central Highlands, and in particular to the plateau around what is now Buôn Ma Thuột. Here the deep basalt soil and reliable dry season suited coffee, and by the 1920s and 1930s coffee from the area had a reputation in France.

The French established plantations under a colonial system in which land was taken from the Ê Đê, Jarai, Bahnar and other highland peoples who had lived there long before coffee did. The land tenure questions that created have not fully resolved.

Robusta was introduced during this period as well, and it did far better than arabica at the altitudes available.

1945–1986: a long interruption

Coffee production through the wars and the immediate post-reunification period was small. Under central planning after 1975 coffee was grown on state farms, output was low, and a 1980s agreement with the Soviet Union provided some technical support and a guaranteed buyer.

As late as the mid-1980s Vietnam was a marginal coffee producer on a world scale.

1986: Đổi Mới

The Đổi Mới reforms of December 1986 shifted Vietnam from central planning toward a market economy. For coffee, the changes that mattered were these:

• Land-use rights were allocated to households, giving farmers something worth investing in.
• Credit became available for inputs and planting.
• Export markets opened, so there was a buyer beyond the state.

What followed was one of the fastest agricultural expansions of the twentieth century. Households across Đắk Lắk, Gia Lai, Đắk Nông and Kon Tum planted robusta, often converting forest and other crops. Migration into the Central Highlands from the lowlands accelerated sharply.

By the turn of the century Vietnam had passed Colombia. Today it produces upward of 30 million 60 kg bags a year and exports most of it.

What the speed cost

For rural incomes this was, in large part, a success story. It also had costs.

Price. Vietnam’s entry at scale contributed to the global robusta oversupply that helped push coffee prices to historic lows around 2001, with severe effects on producers worldwide, including in Vietnam.

Land. The expansion involved significant forest conversion and large in-migration into areas where highland ethnic minority communities held customary land. That tension is well documented and remains live.

Where it is now

The aggressive planting phase is over. The current issues are different ones: roughly 30% of the coffee area is 20 years or older and needs replanting, groundwater for dry-season irrigation is under pressure, and the European Union’s deforestation regulation has made traceability a commercial requirement rather than a nicety.

Alongside that there is a quality movement: fine robusta, specialty processing, and a domestic café culture that has grown enormously. It is uneven, and it is small next to the volume that the planting after 1986 created.