Digital economy canada

Since Vietnam joined the International Coffee Organization (ICO), the coffee industry has experienced three crises, with the first occurring in 1991 when the ICO removed the quota system, causing the price of Arabica coffee to drop from US$4,000 per tonne to US$3,000 per tonne.

The second happened in 2000 when the price of Robusta coffee dropped to US$400 per tonne, and the third took place last year when the price fell by between US$1,300 and US$1,400.

Addressing this thorny issue, almost all coffee businesses have participated in e-commerce trading platforms, marketing the products in London and New York. Private firms have also moved to swiftly set up websites in order to sell their coffee products online, with on-demand home delivery services witnessing rapid growth.

Aside from serving customers at coffee shops, take-away services have also been added to allow customers to increase the efficiency of doing business whilst simultaneously ensuring COVID-19 preventive measures are in place.

Several businesses have also invested in processing roasted, ground, and instant coffee as a means of catering to consumers’ diverse tastes. They have taken advantage of opportunities in exporting coffee beans to markets that the country has signed free trade agreements with.

Besides foreign firms such as Nestle, Olam, Ca phe Ngon, and Tata, several Vietnamese enterprises including Tin Nghia Corporation, Intimex Group, An Thai Company, and Viet My Company have poured capital into intensive processing by building instant coffee factories with popular names.

Most notably, small roasting facilities that specialise in processing specialty coffee for a chain of between 10 and 20 coffee shops by using coffee machines have also witnessed rapid growth.

Furthermore, Trung Nguyen Legend has recently launched its official brand store on Amazon, marking an important step toward bringing local coffee to the world via e-commerce platforms.

With regards to this strategic move, a representative of Trung Nguyen Legend says despite initial encouraging results, there remains a long journey ahead for the group as it attempts to popularize its brand globally, adding that e-commerce channels will develop further in line with consumer trends.

Despite an array of challenges facing the global economy caused by COVID-19, the coffee industry aims to expand markets, participate in supermarket chains in foreign countries to distribute processed coffee, and accelerate the sale of coffee through the e-commerce system.

The industry will boost consumption of coffee products within the domestic market and maintain its position as the world’s second largest coffee producer and exporter, whilst increasing the added value of coffee beans and stabilising the lives of 640,000 coffee growing households nationwide.

The MoIT’s Import and Export Department cited statistics released by the International Trade Center (ITC) which indicate that Poland’s coffee imports throughout the 2015 to 2019 period grew by an average of 6.5% annually, from 141,144 tonnes in 2015 to a total of 181,086 tonnes in 2019.

During the nine-month period, the Eastern European country’s coffee imports reached 136,300 tonnes with a value of US$448.71 million, showing an increase of 2.7% in volume and 6.7% in value from the same period in 2019.

Most notably, the average import price of coffee within the Polish market witnessed a surge of 3.9% to US$3,291 per tonne compared to last year’s corresponding period.

Throughout the reviewed period, Poland increased its coffee imports from the majority of its regular markets, although imports from both Germany and Uganda declined.

The figures indicate that the Eastern European nation increased coffee imports from Vietnam by 30.6% in volume and 27.1% in value, with the Vietnamese coffee’s market share in the European nation’s total imports accounting for 8.13%.

According to statistics released by the Import and Export Department, the domestic coffee price at the start of the year saw a decrease, with coffee prices falling from VND700 to VND800 per kilo.

Statistics compiled by the General Department of Vietnam Customs indicate that Vietnam exported 1.57 million tonnes of coffee worth US$2.74 billion last year, representing a decrease of 5.6% in volume and 4.2% in value, while the average export price saw a slight increase of 1.4% to US$1,751.2 per tonne compared to 2019.

Germany remains the largest consumer of Vietnamese coffee, importing 223,581 tonnes worth US$350.41 million, marking a decline of over 4% in both volume and turnover. Meanwhile, the average export price in the market stood at US$1,567 per tonne, a rise of 0.4%.

The Southeast Asian market ranked second in terms of turnover with US$328.36 million, a drop of 8.6% in turnover, followed by the United States’ market with US$254.89 million.

The MARD anticipates that there are positive signs moving forward for coffee exports as Vietnam’s coffee export markets suffered huge losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic leading to an increase in domestic demand for coffee.

Despite this forecast, the rebound of coffee prices will largely be dependent on the tourism industry’s recovery level in the post-COVID-19 landscape.

Moreover, local businesses have been advised to make full use of opportunities brought about by the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) in order to boost exports in the near future.

MARD Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh said the enforcement of the EVFTA has seen the EU remove all taxes on unroasted or roasted coffee products from 7% to 0%, while tariffs on processed coffee types are set to be slashed from 9% to 0%.

Simultaneously, coffee makes up one of 39 of the country’s geographical indications that have been protected by the EU following the implementation of the EVFTA, an agreement which has created a huge competitive advantage for the local coffee industry in comparison with other competitors in the EU market.