The journey to elevate Son La coffee brand

Create a different direction

Currently, Son La is one of the localities with the largest area and production of coffee and tea (Arabica) in the country. This place is also considered a new land to help reposition the image and brand of Vietnamese coffee on the world coffee map. In 2017, Son La coffee had a strong transformation, putting on a cleaner "new shirt" when it was granted a certificate of geographical indication by the National Office of Intellectual Property (Ministry of Science and Technology) "Coffee". Son La coffee” for different types of products: green coffee, roasted coffee beans and powdered coffee.

To achieve this achievement, there is a significant contribution of enterprises and cooperatives (cooperatives) in Son La in promoting the construction of raw material areas, applying scientific and technical advances in farming, forming The chain links from production, processing, consumption... contribute to creating a unique brand and value for Son La coffee. One of them is Bich Thao Coffee Cooperative, Hoang Van Thu village, Hua La commune (Son La city, Son La province) directed by Mr. Nguyen Xuan Thao.

Mr. Thao said: In the past, people's life in the area was extremely difficult, lacking in hundreds of areas, life revolved around corn and cassava roots, but always in a state of food shortage. Since coffee trees have been attached to this land, bringing higher economic value than previous inefficient crops, people have also begun to dream of changing their lives with a fuller life.

However, the joy was not yet cast, many difficult "problems" posed for coffee growers began to appear such as: Increasingly strict requirements for the quality of the market's products; could not find a stable consumption channel, completely dependent on traders, so they were often pressured on prices...

Before that fact, Mr. Thao as well as many coffee growing households realized that: Transforming production towards productivity, quality and safety is a prerequisite for maintaining the brand, creating a foothold and raising the bar. high income. With that in mind, he began to embark on a journey to find a way to increase the value of Son La coffee, erasing the scene of "a good season, a bad harvest" that clings to people forever.

In 2017, he established Bich Thao Coffee Cooperative with 11 members. Although the age of the cooperative is still young, but he and his members are all people who have been attached to coffee trees since childhood, understanding coffee trees as they understand themselves. Thanks to that, very quickly the cooperative became one of the six units granted the right to use the geographical indication of Son La coffee by the Department of Science and Technology.

Mr. Thao shared: Right from the beginning, the cooperative oriented not to follow the quantity but to promote the application of science and technology to improve the quality of coffee. On that basis, the cooperative has mobilized its members and associated households to apply the coffee production process according to VietGAP and UTZ standards, build high-quality specialized material areas, and cultivate entirely by organic methods. Basically, each field is numbered for easy traceability...

Besides, with the support of technical transfer from experts from Germany and the US, the cooperative has succeeded with honey coffee processing method, not only helping to improve the coffee value. but also to overcome environmental pollution.

According to Mr. Thao, the advantage of honey coffee processing method is that it does not require high mechanization, so it has low investment costs and consumes less water than traditional wet processing, which helps reduce pressure in water treatment. Discharge with coffee-growing areas, suitable for areas lacking water in mountainous areas...

However, in order to produce quality coffee products, unique flavors must strictly comply with technical requirements from seeding, care, collection, and processing. The harvest is carried out by selective picking method, ensuring 100% red ripe coffee. The drying/drying process of coffee beans must be closely monitored, raked continuously to prevent the growth of mold causing damage due to high humidity...

With this new direction, after 5 years of establishment, the cooperative has gradually grown steadily. On average, the cooperative processes and sells to the market from 4,000-5,000 tons of green coffee/year, 10-12 tons of pure ground coffee. In which, 80% of products are exported to Korea, Germany, the US... Revenue reaches 20-40 billion VND (depending on export conditions each year, depending on the ability to harvest each season...), create regular jobs for 10 local workers with an income of 5-6 million VND/person/month.  

Come to the specialty coffee that radiates aroma throughout the "western sky"

Currently, the cooperative has two main products, which are pure powdered coffee and syrup made from coffee pods (coffee berry tea). These are products that are successfully researched, processed and produced by the cooperative itself to serve the export market.

In particular, Bich Thao pure powdered coffee product has been evaluated and recognized as a 5-star OCOP product by the National OCOP Product Classification Evaluation Council in 2020. This can be considered as a fulcrum for coffee products of Son La province to take off, build domestic brand value and reach out to export countries around the world. 

According to Mr. Thao, in order to get a 5-star product, besides the attention and help from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the People's Committees of provinces and districts, it is the tireless efforts of the cooperative members in complying with the requirements. strict production process, change mindset, outdated farming habits, apply modern processing technologies, create specialty coffee products to meet the tastes of domestic and foreign markets.

In 2018, the cooperative participated in the experimental model of organically growing THA1 new variety of coffee and tea, with a scale of 15 hectares in Tat village, Muong Do commune (Phu Yen) and 5 hectares in Hoang Van Thu village, Hua La commune. (Son La city). The model is part of the National Coffee Development Program implemented by the Eakmat Coffee Research and Technology Transfer Center (Institute of Agro-Forestry Science and Technology in the Central Highlands) in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

By 2020, the cooperative will expand by 40 hectares of THA1 coffee and varieties of TN6, TN7 and TN9 in Hua La and Chieng Ban communes (Mai Son), bringing the total area of new varieties of coffee to 60 hectares.

“Thai varieties THA and TN have the ability to adapt to harsh weather conditions. After 3 years of planting, coffee will be harvested with an average yield of 25-30 tons of fresh fruit/ha, selling price from 20,000-25,000 VND/kg of fresh fruit, 80% of the beans reach grade 18 (type 1). Mr. Thao for Hay.

According to Mr. Thao, in order to expand the production scale and ensure a stable supply of raw materials for processing, the cooperative has expanded production links with 800 coffee growing households in the province. At the same time, invest in building material foundations for the production and processing of high-quality products.

In 2021, the cooperative started construction of a coffee processing factory with a scale of more than 1,100 m², a capacity of 20 tons of green coffee/day, with a total investment of 16 billion VND (the City People's Committee supported 2.1 billion VND). remaining capital mobilized from the cooperative). The processing line is designed according to a closed process, including a screening machine, a size sieve, a weight sieve, a color shot machine with German and American technology, a roasting machine, a coffee grinder, a storage warehouse, a display area, product introduction. The cooperative also invested in building 3 greenhouses with a total area of more than 2,200m² for preliminary processing and coffee processing...

Regarding the future direction, Mr. Thao said: According to the commercial production plan for the 2021-2022 crop year, Bich Thao Coffee Cooperative is planning to purchase and process 3,000-3,500 tons of green coffee. Besides, in addition to providing traditional customers, will boost exports to new markets such as the UK, Japan...