I even have the little drip coffee maker.
Posted on 08/14/2013 7:57:34 PM PDT by TexGrill
HO CHI MINH CITY/SINGAPORE, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Desks are empty, the office silence broken only by a handful of staff chit-chatting or playing on cellphones. It's another slow day at the headquarters of Vinacafe, a state-owned firm once the vanguard of Vietnam's coffee export boom.
"There's no one here for you to talk to," a receptionist said when asked who was in charge at the Vietnam National Coffee Corporation in Ho Chi Minh City, the hub of an industry that produces 17 percent of the world coffee output.
The bosses and managers of Vinacafe have either quit or were not at work that day, like most of the 80-plus staff the company says are employed there, according to the company website.
Vietnam is the world's biggest producer of the strong-flavoured robusta beans, used for instant coffee, and has experienced a decade of solid growth which has seen coffee exports reach $3 billion a year.
But its coffee industry is now in crisis, plagued by tax evasion, mismanagement, insolvency, high interest rates and a credit squeeze. Many coffee operators are trapped with crippling debt and banks are reluctant to lend them more money.
Vietnam's credit crunch is blamed largely on state-owned enterprises that borrowed big during the economic boom of the past decade and squandered cash on failed investments, which has left banks crippled by one of Asia's highest bad-debt ratios.
Of the 127 local coffee export firms that operated in Vietnam a year ago, 56 have ceased trading or shifted to other businesses after taking out loans they can't repay, according to industry reports.
(Excerpt) Read more at in.reuters.com ...
Charlie don’t do Capitalism.
Bump
Their coffee stinks as well
Tears By Me Out The Heart.
Who are you calling a drip?
No one.
LOL
Wait. Vietnam is close to Java, right?
And Krakatoa is east of Java..
How ‘bout a cup o’ joe, Ho?...ping....
Classic financial oligarchy operation.
Notice how the debt remains to be paid. Get governments to back debt, get businesses to form cooperatives, have them put up collateral for debt, etc. - anywhere you can get someone to take on a few hundred million in debt, set it up. Everyone comes to the big bankers for financing (most importantly governments), who gladly arrange it for a fee. Want to “nationalize” a business - need capital to get started ? They’ll set you up.
Big finance then buys and sells this debt, trading it like a hot potato if it starts looking sickly. Traders with good inside information can make money in up or down markets, trading quality securities or junk securities. Both Walmart and Tiffany’s can make a profit.
Once they’re paid to float the debt, the oligarchy then has no need to care what happens to the business, shareholders, employees, vendors, customers in the long run at that point. Just pay back those bonds, or we’ll charge you more to refinance.
I’m a coffee-phile and know that Vietnamese coffee was of very low quality (reportedly including sticks, etc.), which was dumped on the coffee market during the boom. Of course large retailers were more than happy to buy it at dirt cheap prices.
Most consumers, after large retailers finish their manufacturing/blending/etc. operations, don’t know what they’re tasting, so anything can be passed off as anything, especially in “flavored” coffees.
The financial oligarchy wins in the end under our current world financial system. They are the big money arrangers, legal organized crime, billionaires without a country, above the law.
Robusta is filler coffee, true, but Vietnam is not the only producer of robusta and there is a use for the humble stuff after all. Most coffee drinkers across the world can’t pay for the good stuff.
From what I’ve read, the point is that even as robusta goes, Vietnamese coffee was generally of poor quality.
From December 2001, the following link was a product offering on Sweet Maria’s:
The quote:
“Vietnamese Robusta: A Cruel Joke?
I thought it would be interesting to offer single Lbs. of the coffee that is taking over the universe: Vietnamese Robusta. It seems it would be fun to give home roasters the chance to try out some of the lowliest coffee on the market, the stuff that ends up in the cheapest pre-ground coffee blends in your supermarket. This coffee will set you back a big .75 cents per Lb. and we ask you to respect our 1 Lb. limit for your safety and for my sanity. Please do not consider our offering of this coffee as a Sweet Maria’s endorsement of this … er… crap.”
No, its coffee.
It can be made into a drink that will wake you up in the morning and can be made to taste more or less good with enough cream and sugar in it. Thats the principal use of the significant imports of condensed milk in these countries. I grew up on Philippine “barako” coffee which is the same robusta as the Vietnam stuff.
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