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Vietnam

Vietnam’s coffee

The land of robusta, the phin and street cafés on low stools. How coffee came to Vietnam, where it grows, how much of it there is and how people drink it.

Where it grows

Nearly all of Vietnam’s coffee grows on the basalt plateaus of Tây Nguyên, the Central Highlands. Arabica grows higher up: around Đà Lạt and in the north.

Đắk LắkGia LaiKon TumĐắk NôngLâm ĐồngĐà Lạt, Cầu ĐấtSơn LaQuảng TrịHanoiHo Chi Minh CityDa NangSơn LaQuảng TrịKon TumGia LaiĐắk LắkĐà Lạt, Cầu ĐấtĐắk NôngLâm Đồng
  • robusta
  • arabica
  • robusta and arabica
Diagram: beans mark the main coffee areas within the former provincial borders. Since 1 July 2025, Đắk Nông is part of Lâm Đồng, and Kon Tum is part of Quảng Ngãi. Land: Natural Earth.

Central Highlands — 92% of the coffee area

The basalt plateaus of Tây Nguyên, the Central Highlands: Đắk Lắk, Lâm Đồng, Gia Lai. Almost all the country’s robusta grows here.

AGROINFO — Báo cáo thường niên Cà phê năm 2025 · 2025

Lâm Đồng — the largest province

After the 2025 merger, Đắk Nông became part of Lâm Đồng: 327,000 ha and more than half of the country’s harvest. Since October 2025, the province’s coffee has carried the “Lâm Đồng” geographical indication.

Nghị quyết 202/2025/QH15 — sắp xếp đơn vị hành chính cấp tỉnh · 12.06.2025 · VOV — Chỉ dẫn địa lý «Lâm Đồng» cho sản phẩm cà phê · 15.10.2025

Đắk Lắk and Buôn Ma Thuột

214,000 ha and 588,000 t of coffee in 2025. Buôn Ma Thuột is the country’s coffee capital: a festival, a museum, a market.

Tạp chí Quản lý nhà nước — Phát triển ngành nông, lâm nghiệp và thủy sản của tỉnh Đắk Lắk · 21.05.2026

Arabica: Lâm Đồng and Sơn La

About 16,000 ha of arabica grow in Lâm Đồng: around Đà Lạt, on the Lâm Viên (Langbiang) plateau and in Cầu Đất. In the north, Sơn La has about 21,000 ha, according to 2024 statistics.

VOV — Chỉ dẫn địa lý «Lâm Đồng» cho sản phẩm cà phê · 15.10.2025 · AGROINFO — Báo cáo thường niên Cà phê năm 2025 · 2025

Robusta and Fine Robusta

Robusta is not “bitter arabica” but a different species with its own taste. Vietnam is learning to sell it not by the tonne, but by the cup.

The robusta country

About 96% of Vietnam’s harvest is robusta: 30.5 of 31.7 million bags in 2025/26. That is more than a third of all the robusta in the world.

USDA FAS — Coffee: World Markets and Trade, July 2026 · 22.07.2026

Fine Robusta

The Coffee Quality Institute has a standard for robusta: green coffee with no primary defects and a cup score of 80 or higher reaches the Fine grade. The Q Robusta grader course was created together with the Uganda Coffee Development Authority.

Coffee Quality Institute — Quality Evaluation Program Guidebook v8 · 05.2024

How good robusta is made

Ripe and even overripe cherries are picked, the fermentation is controlled, and the coffee dries in a thin layer on raised beds under a roof. Such lots sell at prices close to specialty arabica.

Tuoi Tre News — Coffee industry’s future lies with Robusta: Vietnamese coffee expert · 01.07.2026

A specialty contest of its own

Vietnam Amazing Cup 2026 received 182 samples, 122 of them robusta. The final took place in April in Buôn Ma Thuột.

Nhân Dân — 182 mẫu cà-phê dự thi Cà-phê đặc sản Việt Nam 2026 · 24.04.2026

The price comes from the exchange

On 13 February 2025, robusta in London cost a record $5,817 per tonne; by November 2026, about $3,200. The farm-gate price follows: 86,000 ₫ per kg in Đắk Lắk as of 2 November 2026.

Báo Nông nghiệp và Môi trường — Giá cà phê hôm nay 13/2 lập đỉnh lịch sử · 13.02.2025 · Tạp chí Công Thương — Giá cà phê hôm nay 2/11 · 02.11.2026

Deforestation-free

From 30 December 2026, large EU companies accept coffee only with proof that it was not grown on deforested land (the EU Deforestation Regulation, EUDR). Vietnam is in the low-risk group.

European Commission — Regulation on deforestation-free products (EUDR) · 03.11.2026 · European Commission — EUDR country classification list · 03.11.2026

How Vietnam drinks coffee

Coffee here is not a break but a place: on the pavement, on a low stool, with ice, for a good long while.

A phin on every table

The phin sits right on the glass, and you wait for it to drip through. The wait is part of the ritual.

With ice and condensed milk

It is hot most of the year, so coffee is usually cold, and condensed milk makes strong robusta softer and sweeter.

A sixth of the harvest stays home

Vietnam itself drinks about 4.9 million bags a year — roughly a sixth of its harvest.

USDA FAS — Coffee: World Markets and Trade, July 2026 · 22.07.2026

From stools to chains

Low stools along the street are a familiar sight in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Chains grow alongside them: by the end of 2025, Highlands Coffee had 947 cafés in Vietnam.

Tuoi Tre News — Highlands Coffee nears 1,000 stores · 15.03.2026

Vietnamese coffee drinks Brew a phin

How coffee came to Vietnam

  1. 1857French missionaries bring arabica to Vietnam — cà phê chè.
  2. 1908Robusta (cà phê vối) and excelsa (cà phê mít) arrive.
  3. 1920sPlantations on the basalt soils around Buôn Ma Thuột.
  4. 1986The Đổi Mới reforms: about 50,000 ha — and the start of rapid growth.
  5. 2000About 490,000 ha; by the end of the century, Vietnam is the world’s second-largest coffee producer.
  6. 2025Record exports: 1.59 million t and $8.92 billion.
Sources (4)

Harvest season

Robusta in the Central Highlands is picked from October, with the peak in November and December. A good time to visit the farms.

Robusta harvest

October to January, with the peak in November and December. As of 2 November 2026, the 2026/27 harvest is already under way.

Tạp chí Công Thương — Việt Nam bắt đầu mùa thu hoạch · 08.10.2024 · Tạp chí Công Thương — Giá cà phê hôm nay 2/11 · 02.11.2026

The Buôn Ma Thuột festival

Every two years since 2005. The ninth ran on 9–13 March 2025, with about 250,000 visitors. The tenth is planned for March 2027; the dates are still being approved.

Tạp chí Công Thương — Lễ hội Cà phê Buôn Ma Thuột lần thứ 9 · 15.03.2025 · VietnamPlus — Lễ hội Càphê Buôn Ma Thuột 2027 · 10.10.2026

World Coffee Museum

In Buôn Ma Thuột since November 2018: more than 10,000 exhibits, in a building inspired by the longhouses of the highland peoples.

VnExpress — Bên trong bảo tàng cà phê vừa mở cửa ở Việt Nam · 04.12.2018

To the farms

In season, farms in Đắk Lắk and Lâm Đồng show the harvest, processing, roasting and cupping. We don’t sell tours: we tell you where and when, and you plan the trip yourself or with AbsoTravel.

Farm visit

Sources

Sources (33)