CHAPTER 5
Coffee in Uganda and Vietnam: Why They Performed So Differently John Baffes and Anil Onal
During the 1980s, Vietnam exported no coffee at all, whereas Uganda was one of Africa’s largest coffee producers, accounting for a little over 2 percent of global coffee supplies. Uganda also had the reputation of producing the world’s best robusta coffee. Since the early 2000s, Vietnam has become the world’s second largest coffee producer after Brazil and the top supplier of robusta coffee, accounting for 15 percent of the world’s coffee in 2006. Uganda’s coffee production has stagnated, averaging about 3 percent of global coffee supplies, barely matching its 1980s production levels (see figure 5.1). This chapter focuses on the likely reasons behind such a performance gap. It argues that the gap reflects, in part, the way that these countries respond to shocks, both positive and negative, external and internal. The coffee (and agricultural) sectors of Uganda and Vietnam share a number of similarities but are also characterized by numerous differences. Both countries produce the same type of coffee—robusta— primarily by smallholders. The agricultural sectors in both countries were highly regulated initially, but later went through substantial policy reforms. On numerous occasions, both countries’ agricultural sectors The views presented in this chapter do not reflect those of the World Bank. The authors would like to thank Ataman Aksoy for helpful comments and suggestion on earlier drafts of this chapter. 151