Ten countries and territories have agreed to protect the "Buon Ma Thuot Coffee" brand name, which hails from the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak, its provincial People’s Committee said.

These include Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg), Spain, Germany, Singapore, China, Thailand, Canada and Russia.

To protect the brand in the bloc and other countries, the province said it has coordinated with experts from The European Trade Policy and Investment Support Project (EU-MUTRAP) to register Buon Ma Thuot coffee for geographical indication (GI) recognition in the EU.

For the past few years, the province has been promoting and advertising its coffee beans with GI certification worldwide, which has led to a rise in its coffee exports.

Dak Lak’s 2015-16 coffee bean crop has been exported to 75 countries and territories across the world, with Japan, Switzerland, Germany and the US being its largest importers.

During the period, the province sold around 33,000 tonnes of coffee beans to Japan for a turnover of US$57 million, while 23,000 tonnes of coffee beans worth $41 million were shipped to Switzerland. Germany imported around 22,000 tonnes, valued at $37.5 million, while the US consumed around 13,800 tonnes, worth $23 million.

The province now has more than 200,00 hectares of coffee plantations, the committee said. Of this, around 193,000 hectares of coffee is under cultivation and the annual production capacity is at least 450,000 tonnes. — VNS