The sixth Buon Ma Thuot Coffee and Central Highlands Gong Festival, held March 8-13, will further promote Vietnamese coffee as a brand and celebrate the region’s indigenous culture. — Photo thegioidulich.com

The sixth Buon Ma Thuot Coffee and Central Highlands Gong Festival, held March 8-13, will further promote Vietnamese coffee as a brand and celebrate the region’s indigenous culture.

The biennial festival, held in Buon Ma Thuot City, Dak Lak Province, also aims to honour coffee growers, popularise the coffee culture, and promote tourism in the nation’s largest coffee producing area.

“It is also intended to increase coffee export value and confirm the important position of Vietnamese coffee industry in the world,” Deputy Chairman of the Dak Lak People’s Committee, Nguyen Hai Ninh, said at a press conference in HCM City on Sunday.

He said the event would be a venue for coffee growers, businesses and consumers to forge links via a wide range of activities including a coffee exhibition and workshop, and an investment promotion conference for Central Highlands provinces.

Particularly noteworthy is that festival will be held alongside the 42th Dak Lak Liberation Day (March 10, 1975)

Coffee plays an important role in the social-economic development of the Central Highlands, helping reduce poverty in areas inhabited by ethnic minorities.

In 2015, Viet Nam produced over 1.2 million tonnes of coffee, to which Dak Lak contributed over 410,000 tonnes. The coffee export value was estimated at US$2.6 billion.

The Central Highlands Gong Festival intends to raise awareness of the importance of preserving the special cultural features of ethnic minority communities in the region.

The cultural space of the gongs was recognized by the UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008. — VNS