Thu Ha Coffee: Leading Light of Central Highlands Coffee

Spending more than half a lifetime to explore and experiment throughout career ups and downs, Mr Ngo Tan Giac, Director of Thu Ha Coffee Company, found the sweetness of bitter coffee drops. The name Thu Ha appeared on the sign of a popular coffee house in the Central Highlands in 1960, and it is now a representative coffee trademark of the Central Highlands 40 years later. It also helps create the name of Vietnamese coffee on global markets.

 

It is said, “If you go to Pleiku but not to Thu Ha Coffee House, you only know half of Pleiku.” This saying may surprise many people, but Thu Ha Coffee brand is firmly rooted to the image of coffee trees on the red basalt land of Pleiku.

In 1975, Ngo Tan Giac went to Ho Chi Minh City to find a new job. To earn a living in this city, he had to do different jobs like selling coal in Thai Binh market and selling medicines on free markets. Then, in 1980, he visited his brother in Pleiku and he decided to settle in this Central Highlands city where he got married to a local woman.

 

To cover everyday needs, he and his wife had to do different work. Unexpectedly, a patron of his wife’s family’s coffee house advised him to open a drink house as he was very good at making coffee and the advice opened a road of success for him. Before he got married, he used to help his wife’s family make coffee for customers and many of them could not forget the taste.

 

The young couple opened a coffee house and named the shop Thu Ha - the given name of his wife’s sister and the former name of his wife’s coffee house. This was the breadwinner for his family. He recalled: “In the first three months, we were able to sell 2-5 cups a day and we had to buy coffee power on the nod. Then, we had more customers and profit was used to purchase coffee-making tools like filter and glass.”

 

In 1986, Hoi Thuong Ward persuaded local people to grow coffee in Chu A, Pleiku City and his family took six sao (a land measurement equals 360 sq. metres) to grow coffee trees to supply his shops.

 

However, coffee cultivation was not so easy. After one year, a majority of farmers in the coffee-growing campaign abandoned the coffee farms because of slow sales and unfavourable traffic conditions. Besides, they did not know anything about cultivating techniques for coffee trees. Incomes from coffee farms were not enough to cover costs and he had to use profit from his coffee houses to support it.

 

In spite of numerous difficulties, he decided to purchase abandoned farms, raising the area to 15 ha in 1995. Then, he went to Ho Chi Minh City to find books on coffee cultivation. He read books at night and applied what he learned in the day. Finally, his efforts were rewarded with trees laden with high quality fruit. His family became wealthy with this coffee farm. He was named outstanding farmer of Vietnam in a ceremony held in October 1995 at Ba Dinh Hall, Hanoi. This was the foundation for him to develop the Thu Ha Coffee trademark as it is today.

 

Director Giac said the idea of formulating a self-contained process of cultivating, processing and distributing took shape from the first days he invested in coffee trees. “I must learn to know how to grow coffee trees, how to process coffee beans and, more importantly, how to control the taste. I want to do every step from A to Z to achieve the quality as I expect.”

 

At 65, although many choose to retire by his age and lead a carefree life, he still runs the company and directly selects materials for processing.

 

Up to now, after 40 years of construction and development, Thu Ha Coffee has a strong foothold on the domestic market and is extending to the world. From a small coffee house in Pleiku, Thu Ha Coffee is now available at major supermarkets across the country like Big C, Metro and Vinatex Mart. Many overseas Vietnamese buy Thu Ha coffee when they visit Vietnam to present their friends and relatives.

 

For Director Ngo Tan Giac, the originality and taste of coffee are the most important to winning the market.

Thanks to his self-contained production process, his company got through the most difficult economic times. From 1980 to 2000, the price of Vietnamese Robusta coffee was just half the Arabica coffee price as the Vietnamese product was unknown to the world. Many people cut down coffee trees because of losses, but his family still lived well on it.

 

Marketing, packaging and labelling techniques are also very important factors beside quality. In 2003, he went to five European countries, namely France, Germany, Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg, to survey these markets and learn technologies. To date, Thu Ha is selling 14 different types of coffee products to meet diverse tastes of domestic and foreign consumers.

 

To promote production and business activities in the future, he planned to restructure his company from a limited liability entity to a joint stock company. He also plans to invest nearly VND70 billion to build a ground coffee factory in Tra Da Industrial Park, Gia Lai province. In addition to coffee products, his company also processes tea, pepper, dried bamboo shoots, honey and pollen.

 

Besides business, Thu Ha Coffee Company always helps unfortunate people. In the past years, it has financially supported poor students, old people, and lonely people. Giac hopes to build a nursing home for elderly, childless farmers in Gia Lai province.

 

Thu Ha Coffee has been voted a Vietnam High-quality Good by consumers. Director Giac was also presented many titles and awards. For instance, in 2000, he was bestowed a campaign medal for his contributions to the Gia Lai coffee industry in particular and to the country’s coffee industry in general. In 2008, he was awarded the campaign medal of the Vietnam Central Elderly Society. In 1998, he was granted the “For the Health of Community” Gold Cup from the Ministry of Health.