Muong Phang Shade-Grown Arabica

Coffee is one of the products that we regularly enjoy without thinking about how ethical it is…

The coffee consumption worldwide had been dramatically increased from about 90million bags (60kg/bag) in 1990 to 166million bags in 2020 (ICO). This causes the development of coffee planting areas and changes the way of cultivation in coffee producing countries, both are impacting the environment in negative ways.

In 1990, Vietnam had about 6000ha of coffee, after 3 decades the total coffee planting areas is 600,000. This means thousands hectares of forest had been converted to coffee, made the country as the world second largest exporter. The demand for high volume to export drives farmers to change their way of cultivation. In many cases now the canopy which would once have provided a habitat for various animals has been replaced with intensive ‘sun cultivation’, where coffee is grown in monocropping plantations that rely on the use of chemical fertilisers and unsustainable farming methods.

Muong phang shade-grown coffee is an output of the Sustainable Coffee Development project which Oriberry has implemented for 5 years in Muong phang commune of Dien Bien. The project uses capability approach to expand farmers’ choices to help them select either monocropping sun-cultivation, traditional shade grown or coffee agroforestry. The project was funded by SUMITOMO Forestry and ASKUL from Japan under corporate social responsility component.