Winners of the first Vietpresso contest receive prizes from the organisers. — Photo courtesy of Central Retail Vietnam

HCM CITY — Real Bean Coffee, Trung Nguyên Legend and Lamant Coffee won the gold, silver and bronze prizes at the first Vietpresso Contest held in HCM City last week.

Organised by Central Retail Vietnam together with 15 prestigious coffee brands and shops on the sidelines of Vietnam Foodexpo 2019, the competition sought to add value to Vietnamese coffee brands so that more higher-value coffee products can be exported instead of raw materials.

Tạ Hoàng Linh, director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Europe - America market department, said while Việt Nam leads the world in robusta coffee exports, the value is not commensurate.

Last year, Việt Nam exported 1.88 million tonnes of coffee worth US$3.5 billion, an increase of 20 per cent in volume but only 1 per cent in value.

The VietPresso Contest was organised to select some of the best quality coffee products for promoting in European countries during the Việt Nam coffee promotion programme next year, he said.

“We expect VietPresso 2019 to be a good opportunity for our coffee businesses to introduce their products to consumers and connect with coffee importers from countries around the world.”

Paul Le, import-export director of Central Retail Vietnam, said his group wants to join hand with Vietnamese coffee producers and traders to create new coffee products that suit the tastes of consumers in western countries, the biggest coffee market in the world. — VNS