Vietnam, geographically located in the tropical belt of the Northern hemisphere, from the 8030 to 23022 North latitude, enjoys very favorable geographic and climate conditions for coffee, which is the key reason for Vietnam's reputation of its specific coffee aromatic lavor.
On the 16014' North latitude Hai Van mountain pass of over 1,000 m high marks the borderline between the North and the South, starting from the end of the North Truong Son range in the South of Thua Thien Hue province, leading toward the sea.
The pass acts as a huge wall to prevent the Northeastern monsoon, and split Vietnam into two different climate areas:
- The South spreads south from the pas and includes 3 regions: East Truong Son, Western Highland, and the South-east region; belongs to the hot and moisture tropical climate suitable for Robusta cultivation;
- The North runs north from the pass and includes 4 regions: Viet Bac-Dong Bac, Tay Bac, Thanh-Nghe-Tinh, Binh - Tri - Thien; has milder climate with cold winter and showers, is suitable for Arabica cultivation. The North is now the main land under the plan of Arabica coffee development.
25 years ago the States started to pay sufficient attention to coffee development with the two pilot provinces of DakLak and Gia Lai-Kontum on the Western Highland.
The actual area under coffee in Vietnam at that time was merely less than 20,000 ha of low productive coffee with the annual output of approximately 4,000 or 5,000 ton. By the year 2000 Vietnam have developed to 500,000 ha under healthy and high productive coffee that brings about more than 800,000 tons each year.
Such a dramatic development is far beyond the initiatives, objectives and strategy of the industry. It is very clear that the total coffee area actually start its hasty growth since mid-1980s. In 1992 international coffee prices sank to its bottom as all producers sold out their stocks that had been retained under the strict export quota policy set by the ICO.
After the difficult year coffee prices quickly recovered and gained its peak in 1994 and 1995. Realising the huge profit from coffee Vietnamese people of different levels from farmer to officer and from provinces and cities rushed to buy land for coffee plantations.
And as a result area and production gradually increased and have amazingly boomed to the record highs in the last few years. The development was under the regulation of the market and beyond the government's control and targets.
Application
Green coffee beans are roasted, ground and brewed. They are further processed to yield products such as (freeze-dried) instant coffee. Coffee is used as daily drink.
Quality
Green coffee beans are graded according to certain criteria, such as shape, size, uniformity of the beans, color, horniness, husk, cut, gloss, smoothness of the beans, proportion of defective beans, foreign matter and odor.
The color of the beans must exhibit a greenish to deep green and fresh background hue and varies depending on variety and origin (top varieties from Central America: strong green to gray-blue, other varieties: light yellow to light green).
Fading color, starting at the tips of the beans, results from a relatively long storage time and is deemed to indicate poor quality. Fresh-colored coffee beans are recently harvested, while yellowish-green hues are indicative of beans from an older harvest.
Coffee beans must be hard and not spongy (especially washed coffee beans), i.e. if a finger nail is pressed into the bean, it should leave no trace.
The gloss and smoothness of the beans indicate clean processing
- Specifications of Robusta coffee Garde 1 screen 16:
+ Moisture: 12.5% max.
+ Admixture: 0.5% max
+ Black and broken beans: 2% max.
+ Bean size: 90% min. on sieve no. 16 (6.1mm)
+ Packing: in bulk or jute bags 60kgs net each.
