Grow well with good heart

Producer: Cau Dat – Xuan Truong Fairtrade Agriculture and Services Cooperative Location: Cau Dat village, Xuan Truong commune, Da Lat city, Lam Dong province

Cau Dat – Xuan Truong is a cooperative established in 2015 with initial support from the Center for Development and Integration with IrishAid support.

Mr. Vo Khanh has been a longtime coffee farmer in Cau Dat village, and is now the head of the cooperative. The cultivating area of his family now is 4 hectares. Having grown coffee for decades, it was not until 2015 that he knew about standards for producing coffee that meets higher standards for quality, environmental performance, and social benefits.

Some of the advantages of the cooperative come from the training that it provides with support from CDI. Farmers learn the importance of picking coffee cherries at the right time and making sure that the green and the red cherries do not get mixed. In addition, the cooperative (and therefore the individual farms) operate under the requirements of the Fairtrade and VietFarm standards. For example, Mr. Bong’s family do not use chemical fertilizers on the coffee, and fresh coffee must be dried after harvest to meet quality standards. Because they are selling a higher volume of coffee, and because the Cooperative takes the place of middlemen, they can negotiate better prices with roasters and shippers and can return a larger share of the price to the individual cooperative members. The key, says Mr. Khanh, is fairness: “Every member is equal in selling coffee with the same price, and the standards are all the same to everyone.”

By increasing the quality of coffee from growing to processing, the cooperative can make Cau Dat coffee increase in value up to 30%. From selling fresh unprocessed cherries 11.000 to 12.000 VND/kg, they can sell green beans to 120,000 VND/kg. The Cooperative now knows new techniques and can produce roasted coffee that sells at 300.000vnd/kg, a 5 time increase than in traditional production. The cooperative can sell their beans and export roasted coffee to U.S. and Korean markets.

With the support of VietFarm programme and project “Improvement of livelihood of Vietnamese Small Scale Farmers: Building Agri-Food Value Chains and Improving Market Access" by Center for Development and Integration with financial support of Irish Aid in Vietnam.

Vivist: www.cdivietnam.org| www.vietfarm.org.vn