The Vietnam - Global Coffee Alliance (GCA) was officially announced at the International Coffee Conference on December 22 in Da Lat, Lam Dong Province, as part of the Coffee Heritage Festival.
Delegates at the International Coffee Conference and the launch ceremony of the Vietnam–Global Coffee Alliance (GCA).
The conference addressed a critical question: how to build a sustainable future for Vietnam’s coffee sector and the global coffee industry amid unprecedented challenges posed by climate change, price volatility, and value chain imbalances. Policy-makers, experts, and industry representatives emphasized the responsibility of the newly launched GCA in shaping the future of coffee at both national and global levels.
Unprecedented challenges
Coffee is one of the world’s largest agricultural supply chains, providing livelihoods for more than 125 million people worldwide. However, the global coffee industry is under severe pressure.
Experts and representatives of coffee industry associations discuss the leadership role of the GCA and long-term solutions for the coffee sector in Lam Dong Province, Vietnam, and globally.
Climate change has cut yields by up to 50% in some regions, while inflation and geopolitical conflicts have driven sharp price volatility. At the same time, structural imbalances persist across the value chain, with farmers receiving only 10–20% of the final retail price.
According to Nguyen Nam Hai, Chairman of the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association, rising geopolitical instability and expanding conflicts have placed unprecedented strain on the global economy. Wars and sanctions have disrupted trade flows and supply chains, triggering major volatility in energy and financial markets.
The US has imposed reciprocal tariffs on all trading partners, including major coffee-producing countries such as Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia, and Indonesia, further affecting global coffee trade.
Le Hoang Diep Thao, CEO of King Coffee, speaks at the opening of the Global Coffee Heritage Festival, held for the first time in Lam Dong Province.
Climate impacts are also intensifying. Prolonged heatwaves and droughts have reduced output in key coffee-growing regions, including Brazil’s Arabica areas and Vietnam’s Robusta regions. In Vietnam’s 2024–2025 crop year, a series of storms caused widespread flooding, damaging coffee farms and delaying harvests.
Colorful carnival performances during the Global Coffee Heritage Festival, held from December 21, 2025, to January 2, 2026.
Experts noted that the coffee industry is facing major structural challenges, including the urgent need to replant aging coffee trees, as plantations in key growing regions approach the end of their productive cycles.
As a result, experts stressed that shifting away from low-value raw exports toward deep processing is the only viable path to upgrading Vietnam’s coffee brand and strengthening its long-term competitiveness.
Alongside the launch of the Vietnam–Global Coffee Alliance (GCA), King Coffee proposed a strategic initiative titled “The Global Coffee Heritage,” a long-term development strategy for Vietnam’s coffee sector for the 2025–2040 period, to be implemented under a public–private partnership model.
The project comprises six core components: a Coffee Heritage City at Park City in Ho Chi Minh City; the Global Coffee Alliance and a Vietnam–Brazil Coffee Exchange; a green, ESG-based model coffee-growing zone in Da Lat; a Vietnam Coffee Heritage complex integrating culture, tourism, and high-end hospitality at Dinh II in Da Lat; a conference, wellness, and eco-coffee experience center in the Tuyen Lam Lake area; and the AI Coffee Academy.
Vietnam’s pivotal role in the global strategy
Le Hoang Diep Thao, CEO of King Coffee, delivers remarks at the opening ceremony.
Many experts said that Vietnam, with its advantage as the world’s leading Robusta coffee producer, plays a pivotal role in the global strategy and needs to develop a Vision 2050. The strategy aims to raise coffee export value from the current 4 to 10 billion US dollars, build the national brand “Vietnam Coffee Excellence,” promote coffee tourism and high-value products such as instant coffee and specialty coffee, increase the share of premium products to 20% of total output, reduce reliance on raw exports, and create jobs for five million workers.
A King Coffee promotional vehicle at Xuan Huong Lake during the festival.
According to Luong Van Tu, former Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Vietnam must boost productivity, expand deep processing, reduce raw exports, and focus on quality and value-added growth to surpass 10 billion US dollars in coffee exports over the next 25 years. He also stressed the importance of economic diplomacy to remove trade barriers for Vietnamese coffee.
To address sustainability challenges, participants agreed that the efforts of farmers and governments alone are not sufficient. Stronger linkages between enterprises and farmers are essential to ensure stable supply and market access, facilitate technology transfer, standardize farming practices in line with the most stringent international standards, and reduce the number of intermediaries. In this process, leading companies such as King Coffee were identified as key drivers.