Son La province currently houses nearly 21,000 hectares of coffee farming area. As an exception to Vietnam's common strength in robusta coffee, Son La predominantly cultivates arabica coffee, which boasts a unique flavor and higher economic value. This cultivation practice dates back several decades when the French, after studying the local climate and geology, selected Son La as the ideal location to develop this high-quality coffee variety.

Among the 5,072-hectare arabica coffee farming area in Son La city, Bich Thao Coffee Cooperative manages approximately 150 hectares. This area encompasses both the cooperative members' lands and farmer-affiliated lands. Situated in Hoang Van Thu Village, the cooperative's processing plant is constructed amidst expansive coffee fields that stretch over both hillsides and flat valleys in the southwestern part of Son La City. The processing plant is surrounded by raw material regions with arabica coffee trees, currently in fruit-bearing season, standing at chest height.

Originally trained as a mechanical engineer, Nguyen Xuan Thao, born in 1962, is the dedicated director of Bich Thao Coffee Cooperative, driven by a deep passion for this unique crop. He has found remarkable success with coffee trees, and can converse at length about arabica coffee. According to Director Thao, Son La's mountainous terrain, with enveloping valleys and plateaus, favorable climate conditions, and fertile soil, is highly suitable for the cultivation of arabica coffee.

Son La arabica coffee is grown on sloping lands that were previously used for short-term crops with limited economic returns. The ideal altitude for arabica coffee ranges from 900 to 1,200 meters above sea level. Son La province's climatic and soil condition have produced a specialty coffee renowned for its diverse range of 700 to 800 distinct aromas, achievable through various roasting techniques. These aromas range from honey, strawberry, and tropical fruit to even durian, demonstrating the coffee's unique sensory profile created by Son La's unique environmental factors.

Son La province currently boasts the largest arabica coffee farming area nationwide, with an estimated annual yield of over 35,000 tons. Driven by a passion for coffee and a desire to enhance the value of this agricultural product, Director Nguyen Xuan Thao, along with 11 households from Hoang Van Thu Village, founded the Bich Thao Coffee Cooperative in 2017 on an initial scale of only 50 hectares. At present, Bich Thao Coffee Cooperative supplies a diverse range of products to the market, including green coffee, roasted coffee beans, ground coffee, instant coffee, and cascara (coffee cherry tea).

The Cooperative's greatest achievement since its establishment, according to Director Thao, has been the establishment of consistent and cohesive processes from production to processing and quality control, thereby enhancing the product's value. Fortunate encounters with coffee experts from various countries around the world have enabled the 60-year-old director to learn the optimal methods for processing Son La's arabica coffee beans.

"In the past, local farmers relied on experience to harvest and ferment coffee beans without formulas or regulations; the cooperative has since resolved this issue. Depending on the market and specific requirements, we employ different fermentation methods and durations to produce the highest quality product," shared Director Nguyen Xuan Thao. He explained that the fermentation process at Bich Thao Coffee Cooperative is modeled after the digestive cycle of civets, which are animals known for producing the specialty 'civet coffee.'

In addition to the unique processing method, Director Thao and his cooperative members adopted organic coffee production in order to meet the requirements imposed by high-end markets, such as European countries. The harvesting and preliminary processing stages are subject to specific requirements to ensure natural sugar content and the distinctive qualities of specialty coffee. In the accompanying image, pre-packaged coffee bags with filter membranes are prepared for export to the German market. According to Director Thao, each of these coffee bags, equivalent to a single cup, is priced at approximately 180,000 VND.

In addition to finished coffee products, Bich Thao Coffee Cooperative has, through diligent exploration and learning, successfully produced coffee cherry tea from arabica coffee husks. This derivative product of the coffee production process is rich in vitamins, offering a natural sweetness and anti-aging properties. Director Thao noted that processed coffee cherry tea is priced at 1.8 million dong per kilogram.

From its initial 11 households, Bich Thao Coffee Cooperative has expanded its network to include over 800 farming households for the procurement, processing, and marketing of Son La province's specialty arabica coffee. Notably, ninety-seven percent of the cooperative's yield is exported to high-end markets such as Germany, the UK, the US, Japan, among others; with the remaining portion consumed domestically. With a focused direction, within three years of its establishment, Bich Thao Cooperative's coffee was recognized as a 4-star OCOP product from Son La province in 2020. Subsequently, the cooperative achieved the national 5-star OCOP certification in 2022. At the time, Son La arabica coffee became the province's only agricultural product to achieve national 5-star OCOP recognition.

Authors: Tung Dinh - Hoang Anh - Quang Dung

Translated by Nguyen Hai Long