Vietnam’s coffee boom and the threat from water insecurity
Vietnam is the world’s largest producer of Robusta coffee. In 2016, around 1.8 million tonnes of coffee beans worth more than US$ 3.0 billion were exported, supporting the livelihoods of 2.5 million Vietnamese across the supply chain. In economic value, coffee ranks amongst the country’s highest valued export products.
Around 40% of Vietnam’s Robusta coffee comes from Dak Lak province in the Central Highlands. Most coffee is produced by individual smallholder male and female farmers using intensive farming methods. Dak Lak’s rich, well-drained volcanic soils are prized for growing coffee and other high-value cash crops. Coffee farms extend across 260,000 of the province’s 480,000 hectares of agricultural…
