The seventh annual Buon Ma Thuot coffee festival will be held in Buon Ma Thuot city, and the districts of Buon Don and Lak in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak from March 9-16, heard a press conference on January 15. 

 

Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Tuan Ha said the event aims to continue promoting the Buon Ma Thuot coffee brand, thus affirming the position of Dak Lak coffee in particular, as well as more broadly Vietnamese coffee’s important position on the global market. 

 

It will also honour coffee growers, processors and traders, while encouraging the community to join hands to further develop the coffee industry. 

 

Through the festival, Dak Lak hopes to introduce its potential and strengths, and call for more investment, trade and tourism projects in the province. 

 

The festival will feature a wide range of activities, including the 2019 Dak Lak investment promotion conference, an exhibition on coffee, a seminar on the development of Vietnamese specialty coffee, a photo and coffee history exhibition, a street festival, a contest for farmers, a Buon Don elephant festival, and a culinary competition. 

 

Miss Universe Vietnam 2017 H’Hen Nie, who also finished in the top five of Miss Universe 2018, has been selected as the communications ambassador of the festival. 

 

Coffee was first cultivated in Vietnam in 1857. To date, Vietnam’s coffee growing areas reached 20,000ha. The country exports 1.8 million tonnes of coffee beans, raking in 3.2 billion USD per year. Vietnam is currently the world’s second largest coffee exporter, after Brazil.

 

Vietnam exported more than 1.8 million tonnes of coffee worth 3.54 billion USD in 2018, an increase of 20 percent in volume and 1.2 percent in value compared to the previous year.

 

The Central Highlands province of Dak Lak boasts the country’s largest coffee-growing area, with a total area of about 190,000ha, producing 450,000 tonnes of coffee beans annually.–VNA