The authorities of Buon Ma Thuot City are striving to implement the project to develop this urban area into "The coffee capital of the world" based on the exploitation of local cultural value chains, coupled with mobilizing resources from the central government and enterprises.

Reviving the inherent strength from coffee

Mr. Vu Van Hung - Chairman of the People's Committee of Buon Ma Thuot City, stated that Conclusion No. 67-KLTW, dated December 16, 2019, of the Politburo on the construction and development of Buon Ma Thuot City, Dak Lak Province until 2030, with a vision to 2045, assigned the People's Committee of the city to develop a project to develop the brand of Buon Ma Thuot City into "The coffee capital of the world"; develop tourism in an eco-friendly direction, exploit local cultural value chains associated with national relics, and submit it to the Prime Minister for approval.

Trung Nguyen Coffee Company organizes a free coffee program at 10-3 Square

Buon Ma Thuot is the strategic city of the Central Highlands, converging factors of natural landscape, historical value, and especially suitable soil for coffee plants, creating the distinctive quality of aromatic and flavorful coffee in the red basaltic soil region. The Robusta coffee beans from this region are delicious, accounting for over 30% of the country's coffee production.

In addition to the distinctive Robusta coffee products, Buon Ma Thuot now also has cultural works, production facilities closely associated with coffee culture, such as the Coffee Museum, coffee plantations linked to appreciation culture, periodic coffee festivals held every 2 years...

Tourists enjoy free coffee in Buon Ma Thuot City

With historical factors, soil conditions, climate, and the accumulation of regional cultural values, the complexes with strong coffee plant imprints, it is now the appropriate time for Buon Ma Thuot City to aim for new goals and visions, to enhance the city's brand value, and to form "The coffee capital of the world".

According to Chairman of the People's Committee of Buon Ma Thuot City Vu Van Hung, the city is gradually shaping the image of "The coffee capital of the world" by implementing the construction of highlights, unique features that visitors to Buon Ma Thuot City will think of and remember.

Tourists experience coffee tourism at Vuong Thanh Cong organic coffee garden - Ea Kao Commune, Buon Ma Thuot City.

For example, the city is deploying a pedestrian street on Phan Dinh Giot Street to create a space for coffee enjoyment. Or organizing weekend farmers' markets in the city center, with the main product being coffee. The city is also making efforts to attract investment in building infrastructure and collaborating with enterprises in implementing ideas to build Buon Ma Thuot into "The coffee capital of the world"...

Resources required to shape the coffee city

According to the People's Committee of Buon Ma Thuot City, this is a project with no precedent, so when implementing the policy planning for the development of "The coffee capital of the world", there are still many challenges.

The World Coffee Museum recreates the traditional ceremony to introduce to visitors

Firstly, Dak Lak is the first locality to propose to the Central Government to consider and approve the idea of "The coffee capital of the world". Despite being the coffee capital of the country, the number of large-scale enterprises in Buon Ma Thuot is still limited, mainly localized; unable to engage in deep processing, creating quality products with distinctive highlights.

Secondly, the value chain of the coffee industry from production, quality control, purchasing, processing, preservation, product consumption, as well as brand building and trade promotion, has not been closely connected. Various forms of coffee production and business organizations reveal many limitations. Pre-processing, coffee processing at the scale of smallholder farms and other production facilities still have many shortcomings that affect the building and development of the Buon Ma Thuot coffee brand.

Therefore, Chairman of the People's Committee of Buon Ma Thuot City Vu Van Hung believes that to realize the goal of becoming "The coffee capital of the world", there are still many tasks to be done, from renovating and rearranging to building new facilities to develop service sectors related to coffee, tourism, architectural attractiveness, art, local identity, and urban landscape...

In terms of resources, the government needs support from the central government and enterprises to make this major project feasible. Specifically, the People's Committee of Buon Ma Thuot City will propose to the central government a plan to renovate and design urban areas for some urban areas according to the direction of creating a unique identity for the coffee city, including public spaces associated with coffee brands such as squares, streets, parks, architectural works, gateway areas, landscape focal points, art facilities, artistic performance centers...

The city is also studying proposals to build new functional areas related to coffee-related services. For example, the location for building coffee trading floors, financial centers, coffee-related logistic services, shopping centers, High-quality coffee processing centers with international standards...

Based on the essential technical infrastructure system that has been generally planned, the city has identified proposals for upgrading, supplementing, and completing items to meet the role of being the hub of the regional and national infrastructure system towards international standards; conserve, renovate tangible and intangible cultural values directly and indirectly serving tourism, coffee festivals...

In addition, the Central Government needs to provide localities with mechanisms and policies to encourage people to participate in building a beautiful, green, clean city that meets the criteria of a world coffee city; prioritize enterprises to research, develop, and do business with coffee in the area; preferential policies to encourage investment in large-scale public transport vehicles using clean energy, causing less environmental pollution.

Especially programs to encourage and promote the export of coffee according to sustainable value chains, market-oriented orientation, and bear the brand of the world coffee city.

Mr. Le Van Vuong - Director of Vuong Thanh Cong Coffee Company stated that In November 2023, the enterprise was approved by the city People's Committee to participate in the organic coffee project associated with ecotourism.

Accordingly, the city and the enterprise combined to mobilize people to participate in supporting farmers to switch to organic coffee production, guaranteeing product consumption for the people at a higher price than the market by 10-20k/1kg of green coffee beans. This is one of the projects that helps farmers feel secure in production, ensuring social security in the area.

Currently, the Company has implemented support for 70% of fertilizers and plant protection drugs, labor protection, 100% organic certification, and 30% of wet coffee processing machinery for the project. Support in terms of policies attracts students, scientists from within the country and internationally to visit and experience. Government support has helped businesses build their brand image, jointly develop the coffee economy associated with sustainable tourism.