STiR coffee and tea magazine

20 STiR coffee and tea | 2025 Issue 1 Spring (Mar/Apr/May) The Rise of Fine Robusta After cultivation quality improved, Simexco began tackling the next hur- tle: taste. In 2016, Le Duc Huy attended the Coffee Quality Institute and became one of Vietnam's first certified Q robusta graders. India and In- donesia were already known for producing specialty quality robusta, but at that time, Vietnam was only known for commercial coffee. Domestic interest in specialty coffee began increasing. Roasters start- ed opening shops and cafes in Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi, and a few people became certified Q arabica graders. But no one thought Vietnamese ro- busta could be anything other than a commodity. Le Duc Huy invited Dr. Manuel Diaz, a former CQI trainer and robusta expert who had just devel- oped a Fine Robusta program in Uganda, to Vietnam. Dr. Diaz went to Daklak and worked with the Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Association and Simexco to teach the farmers and producers harvesting and fermenta- tion techniques to improve robusta's taste and aroma. Simexco hosted the "Vietnamese Fine Robusta Coffee Tasting" at the 2022 Specialty Coffee Expo in Boston, receiving rave reviews and a high cupping score of 87.83. "The farmers feel very passionate be- cause their hard work has been recognized," said Huy. Not one to rest on its laurels, Simexco now fo- cuses on improving domestic roasting and barista ca- pabilities. "Roasting robusta is different than arabica," explains Huy. "Robusta is very dense and thick. The roaster needs to have good skills in terms of control- ling the temperature to develop the flavors, but not burn while reducing the bitterness." Simexco brings in roasting experts to lead work- shops on enhancing Fine Robusta's unique flavors and hosts annual robusta roasting competitions. They've also started working with baristas to improve pre- sentation skills and foster beverage innovation. With climate change reducing arabica cultivation acreage, Vietnam's Fine Robusta is poised to play an essential role in the future of specialty coffee. Processing and Logistics Lead to Instant Coffee Domination Vietnam learned another valuable lesson from the 2001/2002 coffee crisis–the importance of local value addition, processing, and logistics. In 2001, only 4% of the coffee grown was consumed domestically, the rest was exported. Revista Envio reports that Vietnam had a small number of processing plants during the crisis, and all the coffee exported was unprocessed. The few existing processing plants only served the domestic market and operated well below capacity. Once again, the country turned towards Europe and other processing leaders to learn how to improve its circular economy. The government began offer- ing tax incentives, low rents on industrial land, agri- cultural subsidies, and bartering free trade agreements to attract foreign investment. Several initiatives were passed to improve port logistics and infrastructure, in- cluding enhancing deep-water ports to increase cargo handling capacity and digital platforms that streamline customs procedures, reducing clearance times. In a presentation at the 2024 Asia International Coffee Conference (AICC) in Ho Chi Minh City, Gré- goire Meeus, global head of robusta cash trading at Louis Dreyfus Company, attributed part of Vietnam's success to these initiatives and said, "Vietnam is best in class when it comes to processing and logistics." Brazil may be the number one coffee-producing country in the world, but in 2024, bottlenecks in its ports pre- vented 2 million bags of coffee from being shipped. Ribbon cutting at a Nescafé soluble coffee factory in Vietnam. Photo courtesy Nestlé A farmer gathering coffee cherries in the Lam Dong region of Vietnam. Photo courtesy Simexco

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