At the end of the 2018 – 2019 coffee crop, farmers in Ea Tan commune (Krong Nang district) are still hustling to pick ripe coffee fruit according to high quality standards and conduct preliminary processing right after harvesting.

The first person in Ea Tan commune changing from the conventional farming method to making high quality coffee is Mr. Nguyen Van Trinh (born in 1980) in Quang Trung village. Mr. Trinh left his hometown of Ha Tinh to settle down here since 1997. Then with his hardworking attitude, up to now, he  has 7 hectares of coffee, intercropped pepper and fruit trees. After many years of coffee planting, Trinh found that the normal cultivation and processing methods for coffee have not had high quality; besides, the coffee price depends on the international market while the demand for clean and high quality coffee is very large and raw coffee for roasters are always in lack; therefore he decided to product high quality coffee.

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Mr. Nguyen Van Trinh (right) talks with Mr. Ngo Van Minh about the process of producing high quality coffee

In 2015, Mr. Trinh invested in building the coffee wet processing system, cages, coffee preserving and classifying system. In his opinion, the most difficult and important thing for farmers in producing high quality coffee is selective harvesting to pick only ripe coffee fruit and complying with the drying and preservation process to retain its characteristic flavor. Mr. Trinh said: “Although we have learned the knowledge very well, we still face difficulties at all steps, from productivity to output. Until the 2017 – 2018 crop season, I have built my credibility and  received orders from well-known roasters with a higher price than current market price. Now my high quality processing system can provide 70 tons of high quality coffee to the market every year”.

Not only developing the system for his family, Mr. Trinh also mobilized and persuaded many households in the region to join in the production of high quality coffee. Mr. Ngo Van Minh in village 5, Dlie Yang commune (Ea H'leo district) also has 3.5 ha of coffee, of which 1.4 ha is growing coffee and the rest is replanting and growing fruit trees.

Previously, the coffee harvest depended on the weather, so it was very hard, but this year, Mr. Minh feels more assured of participating in the production chain of high quality coffee. In 2017, with the support of Mr. Trinh, Mr. Minh boldly invested in drying floor system, steam-clean kiln, high-quality drying oven, storage tanks, wide processing area, two-storey coffee drying cage system, etc. Mr. Minh expressed: "I has found out that my coffee production is higher when I produce high quality coffee. Coffee cultivation now only uses organic fertilizers, manure and not spraying pesticides and fungicides; at the same time coffee price is also higher ”.

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Many households invest in cage houses to dry and preserve coffee after harvesting

Beside high-quality coffee, Mr. Trinh or Mr. Minh, as well as the local people are looking forward to producing specialty coffee of this region. Mr. Trinh said: “To build credibility, I established Ngoc Mai Quang Trung Co., Ltd, specializing in clean coffee business to have conditions for connecting with many households in the region in producing high quality coffee. I also put a lot of effort in producing high quality coffee and spend time learning techniques at producing specialty coffee, contributing to improving profit value, and enhancing the reputation of Dak Lak coffee beans ”.

Source: http://baodaklak.vn