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.
- ValentineC
I was just in Hanoi, and some of their roasters are incredible value for money.
Lots of co-fermented specialty Vietnam-grown Robusta and Liberica at incredible prices, far cheaper than what people would find from roasters that import their beans from Colombia or any of the other big coffee-growing countries.
- holgerschurig
> West Germany attempted to isolate East Germany with the so-called Hallstein Doctrine, which amounted to a pretty solid trade embargo.
The first sentence is true, and is what I know. The second economical leg of this sentence is new to me.
Basically, Hallstein Doctrine was what "One China" politics is. The BRD assume that is is the sole legitimate (since democratically elected) government. For example, someone from east germany fleeing to west german already had the (west) germanship citizenship, no paperwork needed to get it.
However, Hallstein doctrine had --- to the best knowledge ... very unspecified reactions. Germany e.g. stop diplomatic relationships with Cuba. But not economical ties, I know that my father continued to smoke Havanna cigars (eeeek!). They stopped diplomatic ties with Yugoslavia ... but all the Winnetou Films were recorded there, and it even became a holiday destination for west germans. Also all payments continued, it was not an economical embargo.
In the case of Egypt it could be seen like that. When Egypt accepted the state-hood of east-germany, then West-Germany broke it's diplomatic ties AND stopped its economical aid. I'm not aware of it stopping buying oil from Egypt, thought.
Fan fact: there is also two inverses of the Hallstein doctrine. The first one is the Ulbricht Doctrine. That doctrine mandated that socialist countries mustn't normalize their diplimatic ties to west-germany until it recognized east-germany.
And the second inverse is that […]
- rurban
The 1977 GDR coffee dilemma is wellknown. Everyone had a different name for the cheap fake coffee then. Even in West Germany the prizes made people try the fake one.
But what is not wellknown to me, why both parties forbid cross partnerships, where they agreed to a longterm economic partnership.
- boxed
Heh, it's funny how the article calls it an "embargo" when the west didn't sell coffee to the GDR, but when the Soviet Union didn't do it, it's just "decided".
- curmudgeon22
A fun read. It's interesting to think about the trade limitations imposed on East Germany and how those impacted daily things we take for granted.