The magic of Laos coffee

Coffee in Laos dates back 100 years. France was colonial ruler of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, and they began experimenting with various crops in these areas. Coffee quickly flourished among Vietnamese and Laotian farmers: it was during the height of its prosperity that Robusta coffee became the most profitable agricultural crop after opium.

Arabica coffee was also developed at that time, but now it has become unknown compared to Robusta coffee. Most of the green coffee beans are shipped to Vietnam and France, and the rest is roasted locally. They mix coffee beans with sugar and a dash of local brandy and roast them over high heat.

Laos does not join the coffee consortia of Brazil or Vietnam due to production and export volume. Lao coffee cultivation area is only 0.25% of the global coffee cultivation area. Laos rarely produces more than 15,000 tons of coffee per year, which is not comparable to Vietnam's annual production of 900,000 tons.

There are many differences between Lao coffee and Vietnamese coffee. First of all, all coffees are almost identical in quality and appearance, and they all seem to come from the same place: the Boloven Plateau in southern Laos. Laos now exports green and roasted coffee to France, Germany and Poland. Some Laotian coffees are beginning to make their way into the American market. The Japanese market is also developing. Quality remains an important indicator: at a recent meeting in Viet Nam organized jointly by the Lao Ministry of Agriculture and Japan's Department of International Economics, Hunla Manivon, Vice President of the Lao Coffee Export Federation, stressed: "Laos lacks a standard system for quality management. "This remains an important obstacle to coffee export transactions between Laos and Japan. It is not the quality of the coffee beans themselves. According to CIRAD Coffee Research Center in France, Lao coffee beans are one of the best coffee beans in the world. Laos does not have a valid and standardized classification criteria for coffee growing areas or other aspects. Actually, it's a management issue, and it has nothing to do with the quality of the coffee beans themselves.

Today, about 23,000 households in Laos depend on coffee cultivation for survival. There are 29 companies in the Export Federation that export more than 10,000 tons of Lao coffee annually. Coffee exports are expected to grow in the coming years. Major Arabica coffee exports rose from 500 tons of last year's total of 14,500 tons to half of exports.