East Germany's Coffee Gamble in Vietnam Paid Off—Just Not for East Germany
The GDR and Vietnam: From Fake Coffee to Coffee Empire
When the 1977 global coffee crisis sent prices soaring, East Germany struck a deal with Vietnam: in exchange for machinery, irrigation, and a $20 million hydropower plant, the GDR would receive half of Vietnam's coffee harvest for twenty years. The project turned Vietnam into the world's second-largest coffee producer, but the first full harvest arrived in 1990—too late for the GDR, which ceased to exist that same year.
The first proper harvest of the East German coffee project in Vietnam only came in 1990 – too late for the GDR, which ceased to exist in the same year.