Coffee in Vietnam

Vietnam is the world’s robusta country. It grows the second-biggest coffee crop on Earth, after Brazil, and almost all of it is robusta: USDA forecasts 32.5 million 60 kg bags for 2026/27, of which only 1.1 million are arabica. Most of it comes from small farms in the Central Highlands, picked from about October to January. Here’s how much, where, what it earns, how coffee got there, and how Vietnam drinks it.

The short version

• Second in the world, after Brazil: 32.5 million bags forecast for 2026/27.
• About 97% robusta, with some arabica in the cooler highlands.
• Small farms: more than 600,000 households.
• One harvest, about October to January, mostly done by Tết.
• A record US$8.9 billion of exports in 2025.

How much coffee does Vietnam grow?

USDA’s figures for Vietnam’s coffee year, which runs from October to September:

Coffee year	Total	Robusta	Arabica	Exports
2024/25	29.0 million	28.0 million	1.0 million	25.2 million
2025/26 (estimate)	31.7 million	30.5 million	1.2 million	28.5 million
2026/27 (forecast)	32.5 million	31.4 million	1.1 million	28.95 million

All figures are 60 kg bags of green coffee. Source: USDA, May 2026.

USDA puts the growth down to farms replanted between 2021 and 2023 coming into full bearing, and to high prices in 2024 and 2025. Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Environment counts about 730,000 hectares of coffee, and robusta yields almost 3 tonnes a hectare. But the Western Highlands Agriculture and Forestry Science Institute warns that about 30% of the area is 20 years old or more and needs replanting.

Where is coffee grown in Vietnam?

Mostly in the Central Highlands. USDA names Đắk Lắk, Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Đắk Nông and Lâm Đồng as the main coffee provinces. In June 2025 Vietnam merged many of its provinces, so recent figures use new borders: the former Đắk Nông is now part of Lâm Đồng, for example.

Region	Coffee	Figures	Protected name
Lâm Đồng (with the former Đắk Nông)	Mostly robusta; arabica around Đà Lạt	About 327,000 ha; over 1 million tonnes in 2025	Lâm Đồng (2025)
Đắk Lắk	Robusta	Over 212,000 ha; over 530,000 tonnes a year	Buôn Ma Thuột (2005)
Gia Lai	Robusta
Sơn La	Arabica	About 26,000–34,000 ha; 37,700 tonnes	Cà phê Sơn La (2017)
Quảng Trị (Khe Sanh)	Arabica		Khe Sanh (2025)

Sources: Tạp chí Kinh tế Tài chính (Lâm Đồng); Đắk Lắk Provincial People’s Committee; Báo Văn hóa and Tạp chí Kinh tế Tài chính (Sơn La); Thương hiệu và Công luận (Khe Sanh). The figures are each province’s own, after the 2025 mergers.

The two biggest provinces each claim the lead. Đắk Lắk’s November 2025 directive calls it “the largest coffee production and export centre in the country”, while the enlarged Lâm Đồng reports more than 45% of Vietnam’s coffee area.

When is coffee harvested in Vietnam?

Once a year, from about October to January. Vietnam’s coffee year starts in October, and the picking runs into the new year: in the 2024–25 crop, more than 70% of the area had been harvested by mid-January, with about 90% expected before Tết, the Lunar New Year, Tạp chí Công Thương reported. USDA notes that rain fell below normal in the main provinces from January to March 2026.

How much are Vietnamese coffee farmers paid?

Less than a year ago, as prices fall from their 2024–25 peaks. USDA’s figures:

Price	October 2025 to March 2026	Change on a year earlier
Robusta at the farm gate, Central Highlands	About VND 102,800 a kg	16% lower
Average export price	US$5,127 a tonne	9% lower

Costs went up: farmers told USDA that fertiliser and fuel cost about 30% more than a year earlier, and labour 33% more. In recent years many had switched coffee land to durian, which can earn 2.5 to 3 times as much per hectare; the 2024 price boom brought them back, and in Đắk Lắk and Lâm Đồng more farms now intercrop coffee with durian, avocado, macadamia or pepper.

Where does Vietnamese coffee go?

All over the world, and for record money. In 2025 Vietnam exported 1.58 million tonnes of coffee, 17.5% more than in 2024, for a record US$8.9 billion, up 59%, according to the National Statistics Office. In the first half of the 2025/26 coffee year, exports to Germany rose 46%, to Italy 31% and to the United States 37%, USDA says. Instant and roasted coffee make up about 13% of exports, according to the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association (VICOFA).

About 40% of Vietnam’s coffee area was certified to sustainability standards such as Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade and 4C by 2025, USDA says, and growers and exporters are preparing for the EU’s deforestation rules, due in December 2026.

How did coffee come to Vietnam?

With the French. Wikipedia’s account, from an article it flags as needing more citations:

When	What happened
1857	French missionaries are believed to have brought the first coffee plants
1888	The first plantations, in Ninh Bình and Quảng Bình; mostly arabica at first
1920s	The French open coffee zones in the Central Highlands, mainly in Đắk Lắk
1930–1940	Exports grow from about 1,500 to 2,000 tonnes a year
1969	Vietnam’s first instant coffee factory opens at Biên Hòa
1975	After the war, farming is collectivised and output stays low
1986	The Đổi mới reforms allow private enterprise again, and coffee booms

Source: Wikipedia, Coffee production in Vietnam.

The boom came at a cost. Wikipedia notes that four to five million people may have moved to the Central Highlands after 1975, and that the spread of coffee brought deforestation and displaced indigenous Montagnard communities.

Which Vietnamese coffees are protected?

Four regions have geographical indications (GIs) for coffee:

Name	Coffee	Registered
Buôn Ma Thuột	Robusta	14 October 2005; also one of 39 Vietnamese GIs protected in the EU under the EU–Vietnam trade agreement
Cà phê Sơn La	Arabica	2017
Lâm Đồng	Arabica and robusta	Certificate handed over 15 October 2025
Khe Sanh (Quảng Trị)	Arabica	Certificate No. 148, reported November 2025

How do Vietnamese people drink their coffee?

Strong and slow, through a phin, a small metal filter that drips straight into the cup, often over sweetened condensed milk, as in Vietnamese iced coffee, or whipped with egg yolk in egg coffee. Wikipedia notes that Vietnamese coffee is usually a medium roast without chicory, unlike the New Orleans coffee that Vietnamese immigrants in Louisiana adopted. USDA expects Vietnam to drink 5 million bags in 2026/27, with young drinkers turning to specialty arabica, better robusta and home brewing.

Vietnamese coffee and other origins

• Coffee in Brazil: the only bigger producer, and the other robusta giant.
• Vietnamese phin: how to brew it at home.
• The atlas: Vietnam’s growing area on the map.