Vietnam natural Robusta Grade 1, Screen 18, water polished

Vietnam ranks second in the world's coffee-producing countries and is the unbeaten number one when it comes to Robusta (Canephora). French missionaries brought the first coffee plants to Vietnam back in the 1850s. But it was only after the Vietnam War that coffee production started to grow. In the 1980s, a major land reform from the Government enabled smallholders to have their own coffee fields, and since then, production has grown exponentially. Today over 600,000 hectares, mainly in the Central Highlands, are covered with coffee trees. The fertile farmlands of Dak Lak, Gia Lai, Dak Nong, Lam Dong, and Kontum produce about 85% of the country's exported coffees.

Smallholder producers work on fields of 0.5 to 5 hectares and combine coffee trees with other crops such as pepper and jack fruits. Vietnamese coffee farmers are among the most productive in the world. This enables them to run profitable small businesses despite the generally lower prices for Robusta coffees (compared to Arabica). Additional sources of income from pepper, jack fruit, and other commodities nicely complement the farmer's business case.

Once the cherries are mature, they are handpicked and dried in the sun at the farmers' home. Mobile equipment is used for dehusking the dried cherries, then they are moved to Ho Chi Minh City, where they are further processed. Once in the exporter's dry mill, the coffee beans are carefully polished with water, selected, and finally bagged and containerized for export.