Clean coffee business trend in Saigon

After “take away” coffee, the trend of self-grown and self-processed coffee is increasingly popular in Ho Chi Minh City.
Ms. Loan, on Nguyen Huu Canh Street, Binh Thanh District, has had the idea of making “clean coffee” for 5 years. On a trip to Bao Loc (Lam Dong), with the desire to own a hectare of coffee, she decided to spend 700 million VND to invest. The number of coffee trees in the initial coffee plantation was not large, so she had to add new seedlings and intercrop tea trees, so the coffee yield was not high. In the first 3 years, the trees did not bear fruit, so she did not earn any money. In the fourth year, she started harvesting the first crop with a yield of 1 ton. But when selling to traders, they found every reason to lower the price, reducing the weight by deducting about 200 grams from each bag. In the fifth year, the amount of coffee increased to 3 tons, she decided not to sell to traders anymore.
“As someone who is passionate about and has also researched a lot about coffee, I could not bear the way traders treated me, so I decided to do a closed project from growing to producing the final product. The idea of processing clean coffee started from here,” said Ms. Loan. And the coffee she makes is 100% pure, without chemicals, without impurities such as corn, soybeans, black beans. Ms. Loan’s one hectare of coffee in Bao Loc has about 20 seasonal workers taking turns taking care of it. Every year, she spends 40-50 million to pay the workers. Instead of using a lot of chemical fertilizers, she uses more organic fertilizers (green manure, compost, organic microbial fertilizer…), limiting the use of pesticides. After harvesting and drying, grinding the beans, she will bring them to the city for processing.

The coffee beans at Ms. Loan’s shop have been cleaned, just put into the roaster and ground to get a cup of “clean coffee”

Her clean coffee shop in Saigon roasts, grinds and processes on the spot. Normally, pure coffee powder has a light aroma, light brown coffee water, not thick, slightly bitter, slightly sour. “The first time you drink it, it may not taste good, but if you drink it a few times, you will clearly see the difference from impure coffee,” Ms. Loan shared. Impure coffee is the type with a very strong and pungent aroma of the flavoring, the color of the coffee water is dark black, thick, foamy, the coffee powder sinks immediately when put into water at room temperature, and has a bitter taste.

However, the clean coffee business is not easy at all. She dried and ground 3 tons of fresh coffee harvested in the previous crop, leaving about 1.5 tons. Each kilogram of coffee beans after roasting is only 700 grams. After deducting all expenses, she sells 50% of the coffee she collects wholesale to stores in Saigon for 150,000-160,000 VND per kilogram. The rest she sells retail at her store for 180,000-200,000 VND per kilogram.

Although selling at twice the price of mixed coffee, Ms. Loan still suffers a loss because of the high investment and processing costs. On the other hand, Saigon people are not familiar with the taste of pure coffee, so the response is not much. “However, I am still determined to pursue the clean coffee business model because I believe that people will gradually understand the value of this type of coffee,” she said.
Sharing her plans for the near future, Ms. Loan said she will cooperate with farmers, purchasing their products at a suitable price instead of investing in buying land to grow and care for them. Because if you invest money in buying land and nurturing the trees from a young age, your capital will be tied up, while it takes 5 years for the trees to grow and bear fruit. Recently, she opened 2 more coffee shops to introduce her clean products.

Also responding to the “clean coffee” model, recently on Nguyen Dinh Chieu street, a coffee shop of this type has sprung up, however, it is not produced on a large scale like Ms. Loan’s but is only a shop smaller than 10 square meters. The shop here mainly sells to office workers and students, they can take it away at any time.
According to the manager here, the coffee source comes from the family in Buon Ma Thuot, Dak Lak, each time they transfer about 10 kg. Because they process in small quantities, the family in the countryside is very careful, 90% is ripe enough and does not take immature beans.
“Although it has only been open for a month, the number of customers is quite good, we sell about 100-200 cups a day. This “clean coffee” does not only have one shop on Dien Bien Phu street but also opens another in District 11″, the manager here said.
Meanwhile, the “clean roasted coffee” shop located in a small alley on Cong Hoa Street (Phu Nhuan District) is quite crowded. The owner of the coffee shop here said that because of his passion for coffee, he opened the shop to serve both himself and coffee lovers. At first, the shop opened with very few people drinking, but when they got used to it, more and more people came back. The shop also sells about 200-300 cups a day.

In addition to the above shops, currently on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street (District 3), Dinh Bo Linh (Binh Thanh District), Chu Van An (Binh Thanh District), there are also quite a few shops with “clean coffee” signs. Not only that, many units are also selling “clean coffee” online, some places even sell coffee grinders, with prices ranging from 2-4 million VND.

Assessing this new business trend, Mr. Van Thanh Huy, Executive Committee Member of the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association, said that this “clean coffee” model of roasting and grinding on-site has been implemented by many people before but has not been effective because most Vietnamese consumers are still greedy for cheap prices and are used to the taste of mixed coffee.
“Usually the lowest price of pure coffee is over 130,000 VND, so if coffee is sold for 60,000-70,000 VND, it will definitely be mixed with cornstarch or soybeans. However, this does not mean that cheap coffee will lose customers, because consumer demand for this type of coffee is still high,” said Mr. Huy.
He added that 100% pure coffee is often strong, not watery, has little aroma, and is not as black as coffee mixed with cornstarch or soybeans, only those who are “stylish”, like to mix and have knowledge about coffee are interested. However, according to Mr. Huy, this model still has a future because people are increasingly concerned about their health. Therefore, businesses selling this product need to have a clear strategy and always care about the health of consumers to develop sustainably. On the contrary, it is only good at first but later becomes more and more distorted, and can only survive in a short cycle.

Collected.