Page 86 - Agricultural innovation

The cooperative’s name is ARA–Tay, from which ARA stands for arabica, and Tay means Thai
ethnic so the cooperative’s name means Thai arabica coffee, in order to widely introduce coffee products
of Thai people for domestic or international market.
To convince and guide people in the village to familiarize themselves with how to make coffee in a
new way is really not simple at all. The heads of the cooperative Ms. Mon had to constantly support and
explain to the people as well as “hand in hand” practicing to help them gradually change from the habit
of picking coffee buckets, harvesting all the fruits. ripe, green, young, worm... come to pick and choose
ripe coffee berries. Next is changing the way of transporting, packing, washing the seeds... For the first
time, people in the village are familiar with the machines, technology and the terms “dark and light
roasting”, “fruit or chocolate flavor”. In the village, people usually just make coffee, in order to make it
quick to saving time for taking care of the rice fields, to work part-time jobs to earn income. But gradually
convincing and the clearest proof is that the price of coffee has increased several times, which is the most
effective way for people to listen, trust and be confident with the way to add value to coffee beans.
Currently, the coffee area of cooperative members is more than 200 hectares and 300 hectares are
of linked households in the commune to be able to choose the best quality coffee berries. Right after its
establishment, members of the cooperative were trained by the project and hired experts from Buon
Ma Thuot to guide them on planting, tending, harvesting, and preliminary processing techniques. At
the same time, supporting the construction of production workshops, fruit washing machines, coffee
machines, packaging and product packaging machines; especially two modern peeling machines using
wet processing technology, with a capacity of five tons of fruit per hour, helping to ensure natural coffee
flavor, saving water. Coffee husks are composted into micro-organisms, saving cost and does not pollute
the environment. In 2019, right after coming into operation, the cooperative officially produced four high-
quality coffee products, including: Natural green coffee beans, Green honey coffee beans, Natural coffee
powder and beans, Coffee powder and honey beans. At the beginning of 2020, at the Vietnam specialty
coffee contest organized by Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Association, coffee products of the cooperative ranked
7th among 60 coffee producing enterprises and cooperatives participating in the competition.
To expand production, from 2021, the cooperative has signed a contract for coffee production and
consumption with 52 local households of Thai ethnic community with a contract term of five years.
Households associated with cooperatives can sign contracts for coffee production and consumption
and are committed to a purchase price higher than the market one (for fresh coffee, the cooperative

Figure 23. Coffee harvest in Son La province
Source: VnEconomy Newspaper

Agricultural Innovation Review in CLV Countries 79