Coffee production in Vietnam
In the 1920s, the French decided to open coffee production zones in parts of the Central Highlands, mainly in Đắk Lắk Province.
However, by the late 1970s, economic and social reforms led to labour shortages in the Central Highlands thus creating opportunities for migration into these less populated regions, compared to the overpopulation and poverty experienced in the lowland areas.
When the global price of coffee dropped in 2001, many farming households had to reduce their daily meal, changed their diets or relied on food donations from the authorities.
[11] The robust Vietnamese coffee industry which is sustained by global capitalism has been built at the expense of indigenous Montagnard peoples, the original inhabitants of the Central highlands.
According to researcher Seb Rumsby, the abolition of indigenous autonomous zones by the Vietnamese Congress in 1975–1976 reflects Kinh chauvinism and craving for economic developments, with regions such as the Central Highland deemed more attractive to foreign investments due to their rich natural resources and suitable lands for farming coffee.
The exponential growth of the coffee industry has also had severe environmental consequences due to its rapid deforestation and land encroachments, enhancing climate change and directly impacting the entire region.
The ethnic inequality narrative has been prevalent in literature written from 2003 to 2013 producing ethnohistorical and developmental analyses situating the coffee industry's risks at a very real, lived experience level.
[15] However, this did not mean that the Ede would fare better and they were in fact their conditions were made worse by their lack of access to short-term loans or by leaving their family farms for too long to seek employment elsewhere.
[13] Researchers have recommended that existing macro policies should help diversify income without basing this on the diversification of crops, as the case with the Ede.
Thus, migrant networks provide an intra-regional perspective to uncover the ways that coffee farmers draw on resources including labour power, financial capital and social support.
Historically, the post-colonial Vietnamese government had succeeded in mobilizing millions of lowland farmers into the highlands where the French had previously failed.
[19][20] In addition to the displacement of some ethnic minority communities, the continued expansion and conversion of unsuitable land for coffee production has led to considerable deforestation and loss of biodiversity.
[20] The lure of coffee farming as a success story has led to an unsustainable tapping of surface and underground resources as the goal was to achieve higher economic growth, putting environmental costs and risks as a secondary consideration.
[20] In a study funded by the World Bank and EcoAgriculture Partners, it was found that half a million smallholder farmers are now in a collective brinkmanship with the physical environment on which their livelihoods depend on; ageing tree stock, rising labour costs, climate change and competition for natural resources providing unfavourable odds for them.
Research has shown that this happens when capital-rich Kinh households acquire and convert agricultural lands to perennial crops for external markets which results in a displacement for poor ethnic minorities who rely on shifting cultivation near the forest margins.
In the case study of Dak Lak conducted by the World Bank and EcoAgriculturepartners in 2015, such a shift is historically charted through the changing development of coffee governance from a weak structure made up of competing interests and policies, to one headed by the CCB that responds to the social, economic and environmental risks to local coffee farmers by providing resources, education and training.
There is evidence that the CCB and the government have taken into consideration policy recommendations made by researchers over the past decade such as prioritizing crop diversification and ecological farming practices.
[15][21] However, this seemingly blanketing of current macro-level responses ignores the fact that access to the CCB's programmes are still unequal, often favouring the Kinh majority over the ethnic minorities in the Highlands.
[25] Fair Trade is the most commonly recognized certification across many major consumers such as the United States, Europe, Japan and South Korea.
This is often done through audits to provide accountability and transparency for consumers and investors, a relatively new, post- Doi Moi initiative that Vietnamese farmers have to also grapple with to maximise their potential earnings.
[32] The French roast style popular in Louisiana was similar to Vietnamese coffee in its relatively coarse grind, which made it an excellent substitute for traditional brewing in the single-serving filter/brewer.
[33] Since economic liberalization under Đổi mới with the growth of Vietnamese coffee, this product now competes in an international environment with different laws, cultures, tastes and business practices.
