Despite being a key export item, earning billions of dollars each year, Vietnam’s coffee still lacks a national brand to enhance its value. Managers and businesses in the industry all agree on the need for a national brand.

Vietnam ranked second in the world in coffee exports last year, after Brazil, with nearly 1.8 million tonnes worth some 4 billion USD. More than 30% came from Dak Lak province, with the famous trademark and geographical indication “Buon Ma Thuot Coffee”.

However, Dak Lak and Vietnam at large still have no coffee brand in the top 10 most valuable in the world.

There are very few enterprises producing Vietnamese coffee brands for export to the world. Thailand, meanwhile, has premium coffee selling for 50-100 USD a cup at 5-star hotels around the world.

It has been suggested that businesses join hands in repositioning Vietnam’s coffee brand by focusing on continued planting and deep processing. Along with that is the development of advertising, marketing, and brand positioning strategies in accordance with their capacity, as brand value provides leverage to help raise product value.

Vietnamese coffee remains in the low-value segment, and the country mainly exports raw materials, production is small scale, quality is uneven, and deep processing technology is limited. These are the challenges facing the coffee industry in building a national brand.

VNA