Advertisement
Opinion
Climate change threat is more than a storm in Vietnam’s coffee cup
- From Brazil and Colombia to Indonesia and Vietnam, coffee crops over the last decade have been hit by adverse weather and climate-related disease
- Supply is increasingly unstable and shrinking, even as the land suitable for cultivation is fast disappearing
4-MIN READ4-MIN
Genevieve Donnellon-May is a geopolitical and global strategy adviser interested in regional resource conflict and environmental governance in Asia and Africa.
Trouble is brewing for drinkers of coffee, one of the world’s most traded commodities, as climate change affects farmers, reshaping production patterns.
Amid a worsening drought in Vietnam, the world’s second-biggest coffee producer and leading supplier of the robusta bean (commonly used in instant coffee), news that its coffee exports may fall by 20 per cent this year sent prices soaring, with robusta futures hitting record highs.
Coffee plays a sizeable role in Vietnam’s economy, bringing in over 10 per cent of its revenues from agricultural exports and 3 per cent of its gross domestic product. Last year, Vietnam exported 1.61 million tonnes of coffee, earning a record high of US$4.18 billion.
While Europe dominates the more lucrative market for processed coffee (such as instant coffee), the low value-added market for unprocessed coffee (such as raw beans) is dependent on poorer countries – along with Vietnam, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia and Ethiopia are responsible for 70 per cent of this sector.
Select Voice
Select Speed
1x
AI-generated voice