Coffee arrived in Vietnam with French missionaries in 1857, and the first plantations appeared around 1888 in the northern region then called Tonkin. In the 1920s the French moved production south to the Central Highlands and Dak Lak province for its basaltic soil, reaching about 2,000 tons of exports a year by 1940. The war emptied the Buon Ma Thuot coffee heartland, and collectivization after 1975 left the industry stagnant for a decade until the 1986 Doi Moi reforms legalized private enterprise. By 2023 Vietnam was exporting more than 1.62 million tons, 97 percent of it Robusta, as the world’s second largest producer.

The boom drew four to five million lowland migrants into the highlands, displacing indigenous Montagnard groups such as the Ede after the government abolished autonomous zones. Ede farmers own larger farms yet earn less, while Kinh migrants hire skilled labor and borrow against the lowland plots relatives stay behind to guard. Monocropping, deforestation, and drained aquifers followed, along with violent price swings, an aging tree stock, and certification programs the episode calls coffee statecraft.

• The 2013 to 2014 crop jumped to 29.5 million bags from 17 million, crashing prices.
• Nearly half of 127 local export firms went bankrupt, leaving $379 million in bad debt.
• The World Bank warned in 2011 that output could fall up to 40 percent without replanting, and new trees take up to six years to reach full yield.
• U.S. country of origin labeling rules exempt roasted coffee, so Vietnamese Robusta flows into blends without a made in Vietnam label.
• Chicory coffee sold as Vietnamese is a New Orleans substitute, while real blends mix Robusta with Arabica or the drought-tolerant Chari.