The 3rd International Buon Ma Thuot coffee festival 2011 to be held on March 10 – 13, said the Dak Lak provincial People’s Committee today (January 17).

This is a national trade, tourism and cultural promotion activity, aiming to accelerate the development of the Vietnam’s coffee industry as well as the multi-faceted development potential of the province.

The organizing board is expected to lure 50 coffee-related companies including 18 international ones from Brazil, Columbia, Indonesia, Ethiopia... to the event, together with 1 million visitors.

Main activities of the festival are street carnival, coffee-related exhibition and fair, strong trade marks showcase, “How to develop Buon Ma Thuot’s coffee in a sustainable way” seminar with the participation of domestic and international leading experts, business-people.

 

Last year, export turnover of Vietnamese coffee reached over 1.6 million USD. (Photo: ATP)

 Besides, there are a lot of cultural and arts performance programs such as “Thanks giving coffee”, “Coffee world evening”, “Emotional Convergence” and other traditional-music events by Central Highlands artists.

Participants will also have chance to visit coffee gardens, coffee processing factories, sight-seeing sites and traditional cuisine of Dak Lak province.

The two previous events was held in 2005 and 2008, attracting millions of visitors and gradually affirming the position and trade mark of Vietnamese coffee in the world. The festival, hosted by the Dak Lak provincial People’s Committee, will be held every two years after this upcoming event.

Vietnam is currently the world’s leading robusta coffee producer with a coffee growing area to about 500,000 hectares. In 2010, the nation has pocketed over 1.6 million USD from coffee exports.

The organizing board of the festival consists of People’s Committees of Dak Lak, Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Dak Nong, Lam Dong; relevant Ministries and agencies, Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association (VICOFA), and the Vietnam National Coffee Corporation.

(CPV)