(VOVWORLD) - Bich Thao coffee in the northern mountainous province of Son La was named one of the 10 best brands at the 2020 Vietnam Specialty Coffee Competition and has been recognized as a 4-star OCOP product. The Bich Thao Coffee Cooperative is now trying to get the brand certified as a national 5-star product.
 The Bich Thao Coffee Cooperative now has 60 ha of organic specialty coffee to VietGAP standards. |
The Bich Thao Coffee Cooperative was established in 2017 with 11 members and 90 ha of coffee trees. Its membership has now grown to 400, involving in coffee production, processing, and trading.
The cooperative has invested in modern equipment and machinery to improve productivity and quality.
Nguyen Xuan Thao, Cooperative Director, said, “At first local farmers faced lots of difficulties. But from training courses, they have learned that OCOP products give growers and processors higher profits and consumers high-quality products.”
 The Bich Thao Coffee Cooperative has invested in modern equipment and machinery to improve productivity and quality. |
Bich Thao has applied state-of-the-art technology in a pilot program to grow 60 ha of organic specialty coffee to VietGAP standards. The coffee variety used is THA1, a high-yield, high-quality variety intended for export.
Nguyen Thi Bac, a cooperative member, said that the new specialty coffee produces 3 to 4 times the profit of coffee grown by traditional methods. Even the cooperative’s coffee cherry tea costs nearly 20 USD per kilo.
“I switched to growing the new coffee variety because it produces bigger coffee beans. If I get a high yield from this crop, I’ll replace all the old trees with the new ones,” said Bac.
The Bich Thao Coffee Cooperative is expanding its production, upgrading its processing technology, replacing old varieties, and linking with organizations, businesses, and households for production, processing and sales.
Director Thao said cooperative members have opted for producing high-quality coffee. In some places, the THA1 coffee variety has been inter-cropped with the old variety. The biggest obstacle right now is a lack of sufficient funding to plant more of the new variety.
“We have urged provincial authorities to help local coffee growers buy seedlings. They need to plant the THA1 variety to boost their income,” said Thao.
Changing its agricultural mindset has increased the Bich Coffee Cooperative’s total revenue to more than 1.7 million USD per year.