ABSTRACT
Vietnam’s economic reform process was manifested in the Doi Moi policies of 1986, which in the late 1980s led to the dismantling of collective farming and the expansion of family farming. In the 1990s, these policies were accompanied by a break with the principle of regional self-sufficiency in rice production and the stimulation instead of agro-forestry production directed towards export. The expansion of coffee production is one example of this development. In 2000, Vietnam reached its current position as the second largest exporter of coffee in the world and at the same time became the largest exporter of the ‘Robusta’ variety. This position was gained through a dramatic increase in coffee production during the 1990s. However, the economic boom in the global coffee market in the 1990s became a bust at the turn of the century, resulting in a far-reaching crisis in Vietnam’s coffee sector.
