Making quality coffee in Vietnam: Farmers, agricultural science and the production of value

This PhD project asks how specialty coffee farmers and processors in Vietnam work with specific value chains and agricultural science to improve their livelihoods by increasing the quality and value of their coffee. The project is driven by a need for policymakers, industry actors and researchers to build richer understandings of rural development from the perspectives of producers.

Like smallholder farming elsewhere, coffee farming in Vietnam is precarious, characterized by volatile prices, slim profits and environmental crises. Vietnam rose from being an insignificant coffee producer in the 1980s to become the world's second-largest producer by 2000, however the global coffee industry regards Vietnam's coffee as very low quality, relegating it to cheap blends, instant coffee and caffeine extract. This study seeks to understand how a small but growing number of producers are breaking away from this reputation, making a living by making quality, rather than quantity. In a global industry like coffee which devalues their labor and their crop, this proposition of value is a radical departure.

This study adopts a material-driven methodology involving working alongside producers and learning-by-doing, in addition to interviews with people throughout the value chain. It asks the following:
1) How do coffee farmers and processors in Vietnam engage with agricultural science and specialty coffee value chains to increase the quality of their crop, turning "bad coffee" into "good coffee"?
2) What are the consequences for the value of Vietnamese coffee and the roles of these producers in the industry?

This project aims to communicate producers' ideas and expertise to the coffee industry, policymakers, researchers and consumers via non-academic communications. Theoretically, this research is grounded in critical livelihood studies, commodity studies and science and technology studies.