100 Years of Coffee Cultivation in Lạc Dương, Vietnam

Lạc Dương, a small district in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, offers a compelling case. From the arrival of Arabica via French colonists, its quiet adoption by the K’Ho ethnic minority, to the transformations under socialism and market reforms, coffee here tells a long and layered story.
Today, this legacy continues through our cumpa partners Zanya and Lộc Rừng, whose farms are rooted in the same highland soils, K’Ho traditions, and ecological knowledge that shaped Arabica’s first century in the region. They’re not just focused on producing great coffee; what they do is deeply tied to the land, to their community’s identity, and to farming methods passed down over generations.

Coffee arrived in Vietnam in 1857, introduced by French missionaries. While initial plantings occurred in the north, commercial-scale production later expanded into the Central Highlands. By the early 20th century, regions like Lâm Đồng Province were prioritised due to their high elevations and fertile volcanic soils—ideal conditions for growing Arabica (Le, 2020; Minh et al., 2017; Faye et al., 2022).
Large-scale estates were established by colonial authorities. K’Ho communities, who had lived for generations in the Lang Biang Plateau, were employed in roadbuilding and farm labour. Through this exposure, Arabica seeds and cultivation knowledge began circulating among local households (Schippers, 2015; Le, 2020).

By the early 20th century, K’Ho farmers had started planting Arabica in home gardens and community plots. A recent case study in Lâm Đồng shows that these plantings were often integrated into traditional agroforestry systems. They were grown without chemical inputs, under shade, and alongside other crops (Kawasaki, 2022).
Unlike the monocultures on colonial estates, these systems were based on ecological knowledge and managed independently. Coffee was cultivated partly for local consumption, but increasingly for trade—using manual farm and processing practices (Faye et al., 2022).

Vietnam’s wars and political transitions between 1945 and the late 1980s deeply affected rural agriculture. After 1975, land in Lâm Đồng was reorganised into state and collective farms under socialist policy (Marsh, 2007). However, in remote districts like Lạc Dương, many K’Ho farmers maintained their traditional plots, often outside formal planning systems (Le & Pellissier, 2022).
This period restricted private trade and investment. At the same time, it helped preserve older Arabica varieties along with traditional cultivation practices that had been excluded from central programmes.

Vietnam’s 1986 economic reforms, known as Đổi Mới, marked a shift to market-based agriculture. Coffee became a major focus of the national export strategy (Nguyen et al., 2015). Robusta, favoured for its high yield and pest resistance, was heavily promoted in the Central Highlands. This expansion was supported by aid from the German Democratic Republic and later by global development institutions (Faye et al., 2022; ICO, 2023).
By the 2000s, Vietnam had become the world’s second-largest coffee exporter. Robusta accounted for over 90 percent of total output. Arabica, though marginal in terms of volume, remained rooted in districts like Lạc Dương, where conditions favour its growth and a local coffee culture had evolved around it.

Despite Robusta’s dominance across Vietnam, Arabica cultivation has continued in Lạc Dương, particularly on smallholder plots at higher elevations. Farmers in the region have maintained Arabica trees like Typica and Bourbon, some tracing back to colonial-era introductions. The area’s red basalt soils and cooler climate offer conditions that support promising cup profiles (Minh et al., 2017; Pham et al., 2023).

However, over time, many farmers have also planted the more resilient and higher-yielding Catimor variety to ensure stable harvests in the face of low prices and a changing climate. (Catimor is a hybrid of Caturra and the Timor Hybrid — a cross that combines Arabica quality with Robusta disease resistance.)
This continuity, however, exists within a broader context of systemic pressure. Since the 1990s, large-scale Robusta expansion has driven widespread deforestation in the region, intensified water demand, and disrupted traditional land use (Le & Pellissier, 2022).

Despite these challenges, many producers in Lạc Dương continue to cultivate Arabica—some motivated by a passion for their product and cultural identity, others by recent economic incentives. High coffee prices in recent years have encouraged greater attention to farm management. Interest in the unique quality of Arabica from the area is also growing, both domestically and internationally.

Both are smallholder-based producers in Lạc Dương who prioritise agroecological farming and transparent sourcing from their community. Their coffees are produced with care, community knowledge, and a deep connection to land.
The story of coffee in Lạc Dương is more than a timeline of planting and trade. It reflects how knowledge, land, and market access shift across generations. Arabica farming here has survived colonialism, war, and policy shifts through the persistence of community-based practices. While these systems face structural constraints, they also represent one of the most ecologically viable and culturally embedded models of coffee production in Vietnam.

For us and our roasting partners in Europe, working with producers like Zanya and Lộc Rừng means sourcing with the purpose of honouring the people and practices that keep Vietnam’s Arabica legacy alive — hopefully for another century to come.