Surviving Vietnam's coffee boom and bust

Abstract

SANREM CRSP researchers Dang Thanh Ha of Vietnam's Nong Lam University and Gerald Shively of Purdue University examined small farmers' responses to the boom and bust in Vietnam's coffee economy. Using data from 1999 and 2003 surveys of coffee farms, the researchers analyzed responses to falling prices. They took into account the role of ethnicity, the importance of access to irrigation, and households' subjective outlook on future coffee prices. The data identified four patterns of farmer response to plummeting prices: