Promoting geographical indication of Dak Lak coffee

The Central Highlands province of Dak Lak boasts the country’s largest coffee-growing area, with a total area of over 200,000 hectares, producing up to 450,000 tonnes of coffee beans annually. However, in order to improve its competitiveness, as well as to protect local products, it is necessary for Dak Lak to manage and develop the geographical indication of “Buon Ma Thuot Coffee”.

Illustrative image
Illustrative image

According to Chairman of the Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Association, Trinh Duc Minh, a certificate of geographical indication (GI), for the Buon Ma Thuot coffee trademark in Dak Lak, has helped to increase the value of coffee beans shipped abroad.

Protected geographical indication (PGI) for Buon Ma Thuot coffee was registered in Vietnam in 2005. The province has completed the necessary procedures to gain PGIs in 15 countries and territories around the world and as many as 11 coffee producers in the province are entitled to use the GI. They are managing a combined coffee growing area of 15,300 hectares, yielding around 47,500 tonnes of coffee beans annually.

To ensure the quality of coffee products, in line with the requirements of the international market, management agencies and coffee producers have instructed local growers to follow standardised coffee-growing models, so that their products may obtain certifications granted by UTZ Certified and Rainforest Alliance, the two organisations tasked with promoting sustainable farming.

The local authorities have also encouraged coffee processing enterprises, which are allowed to use the GI, to label their products with the Buon Ma Thuot coffee trademark and inform customers in more detail about the distinctive characteristics of certificated coffee products.

Coffee growers in the province have also applied internationally-recognised programmes on sustainable coffee production to raise their incomes, according to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. More than 40,500 coffee farming households in Dak Lak are producing coffee in line with programmes such as UTZ certificates, Common Code for Coffee Community (4C) and Rainforest Alliance Certified Coffee (RFA). They have produced 226,000 tonnes of coffee beans on a combined area of 65,000 hectares each year, accounting for over 50% of the annual output.

All 11 units granted with the Geographical Indication of Buon Ma Thuot coffee have also joined certified coffee production programmes. In Cu M’gar district, the main coffee growing locality in Dak Lak, almost 10,000 coffee farming households have taken part in certified coffee production programmes on an area of 15,000 hectares, making up 45% of the district’s total coffee area.

These households have been provided with techniques in growing, caring, watering, fertilising, harvesting, processing and preservation and have also been instructed on how to reduce production costs and use fertilizers in order to minimize impacts on the environment.