Page 85 - Agricultural innovation

5.9.4. Conclusions
Lac village has promoted the community factor very well, making it an essential engine for sustainable
development of community tourism. The experience from Lac village can be flexibly applied to many
other localities across the country, in which it is necessary to focus on rapid development without
losing inherent natural and cultural values, so that future generations can still utilise these resources
for ecomomic, social and environmental values.

5.10. Model for Linkage of Stakeholders of Coffee Value Chain in Son La Province
5.10.1. General information

From around 1945, realizing the suitable soil and climate conditions, the French brought Arabica
coffee trees to grow in Son La province. After more than 70 years, Arabica coffee has become the main
crop of this province. In 2020, the coffee area of Son La province is about 17,804 hectares, the output is
estimated at 25,581 tons of green bean. With a large planting area, Son La is the second largest Arabica
coffee growing region in Vietnam, after Lam Dong province. In 2017, the province was granted a
geographical indication “Son La Coffee” for some coffee products such as raw green coffee, roasted
coffee beans and powdered coffee.
However, despite having advantages in quality and productivity, Son La coffee production and
processing activities still are with limitations such as: not many affiliate organizations have been formed
in production; the old coffee area that needs to be renovated for a large proportion; seed quality is not
guaranteed; productivity and quality of coffee products are not commensurate with potential and
advantages; people only grow and harvest green berries and coffee trees are planted under limited care.
The ARA–Tay Coffee cooperative model, which was born in June 2020, has gradually overcome the
above limitations and become one of the outstanding highlights in the link of production–processing–
consumption of coffee in Son La province. The story begins with a Thai girl named Cam Thi Mon.

5.10.2.Model development

Born and grown up in Chieng Chung commune (Mai Son district), from a young age, Cam Thi Mon often
followed her parents to the fields to pick coffee, so she understood the hardships of farmers. Although
the family had up to two hectares of coffee, but at that time the production was still fragmented amd
it was hardly enough to eat. In the frost years, the entire coffee area of the whole village was damaged.
When harvesting, people do not know how to choose the ripe fruit, but pick all the green ones. In the
good years, the price is forced by the traders with much lower price. Therefore, many households in the
village have cut down coffee to grow other crops. After finishing high school, starting a family of her
own, Ms. Mon continues to work as a coffee farmer and always worries about how to produce quality
coffee products that are known and advanced by the domestic market.
In 2018, Project Care (under an Australian NGO) supported the establishment of a savings
group in Chieng Chung. Ms. Mon and some members selected by the project to visit the production
cooperative model which produce high quality coffee in the Central Highlands. She studied, compared
and evaluated the economic efficiency of coffee production in the Central Highlands with Son La
region. In fact, although Son La’s arabica coffee has much better quality than coffee in the Central
Highlands, it is still mainly selling raw products, with prices ranging from 25,000–30,000 VND/kg
coffee beans each year, while in the Central Highlands sold 60,000 VND/kg. Since then, Ms. Mon has
formed the idea of establishing a cooperative specializing in producing high-quality coffee. With the
help of Project Care experts, at the beginning of 2019, she campaigned to establish ARA–Tay Coffee
cooperative with 14 members, with a total capital contribution of 534 million VND, of which mainly
from women’s credit and saving group.

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