Nguyen Huu Dong, Secretary of the provincial Party’s Committee, said the festival is an important event designed for Son La and other northwestern provinces to introduce their Arabica coffee and honour coffee growers, processors and traders, contributing to promoting the value and the position of Son La Arabica coffee in domestic and foreign markets.
The cultivation of Arabica coffee in Son La began in the late 1980s, and the area under the plant expanded from 278ha in 1990 to over 20,000 ha in 2023, accounting for 41.2% of the country’s Arabia coffee cultivation area. Of which, 18,000 ha have obtained sustainable farming certification. Son La coffee has been exported to 20 countries in the European Union, North America, the Middle East and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Addressing the event, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan emphasised the importance of cooperation and linkage in developing a sustainable value chain for the coffee industry in Son La.
The festival with the theme of "Arabica, Son La Coffee - Taste of Tay Bac" will last until October 23.
It features a coffee gala, a farmers’ competition, a trade fair, the inauguration of investment projects in the coffee sector and Cascara tea production lines in Mai Son district, and a conference on coffee trade connections.
