Vietnam's agricultural conglomerate Hoang Anh Gia Lai（HAGL） has announced a plan to expand its directly managed coffee farms to 20,000 ha by 2028 and to aim to establish the "world's largest directly managed coffee farm." In 2025 it greatly exceeded its annual targets for both sales and net profit, and for 2026 it sets a bullish target of net profit up 87.6% year on year.
News overview: HAGL's 2025 results and 2028 strategy
HAGL's agriculture division left standout results in 2025 even amid a tough coffee-market environment.
| Indicator | 2025 actual | 2026 target |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | VND 7.43 trillion (about JPY 28.2 billion) | VND 8.62 trillion (about JPY 32.7 billion) |
| Net profit | VND 2.24 trillion (about JPY 8.5 billion) | VND 4.2 trillion (about JPY 16 billion) |
| Sales target achievement rate | 134.8% | (+16% year on year) |
| Net-profit target achievement rate | 201.1% | (+87.6% year on year) |
The main expansion plans for 2026 are as follows.
- 7,000 ha of additional coffee planting
- 1,000 ha expansion of mulberry
- Construction of 4 wet-process coffee plants
- Construction of 1 coffee-extraction facility
- First dividend in more than 10 years planned (VND 500/share, scheduled for approval at the 2027 AGM)
Current farms are deployed in Laos (Attapeu, Champasak), Cambodia (Ratanakiri, Stung Treng) and Vietnam (Gia Lai province). Founder Doan Nguyen Duc (chairman) directly holds about 24.45% of the company's shares.
Source: The Investor – HAGL Bets on Coffee & Mulberry、The Investor – HAGL Targets Record Profit in 2026
Why HAGL sticks to the directly managed farm model
Behind HAGL's aim to expand to the scale of a "20,000 ha directly managed farm" lies a strategic intent beyond mere production-volume expansion.
The biggest reason is responding to the EUDR (EU Deforestation Regulation). The EUDR's enforcement was postponed in 2025, but it is expected to be formally applied from 2026 onward, and coffee exports to the EU market will be required to prove "farm-level traceability." In a model that sources from smallholders, the data of each of thousands of farmers must be collected and managed, and the cost and complexity are enormous.
With a directly managed farm, production site, cultivation method, harvest timing and processing steps can all be managed in a unified way. Responding to the EUDR is not a mere cost burden but also a chance to secure a premium price as "coffee from a provable farm."
Another reason is the uniformization of quality and value addition. The "construction of 4 wet-process coffee plants" and "construction of 1 coffee-extraction facility" announced this time mark a shift from bulk Robusta-bean exports to a consistent high-quality product through processing and refining. HAGL is trying to build a structure that sells coffee not as a "farm product" but as a "processed food."
Structural transformation of Vietnam's coffee industry: breaking away from bulk exports
Vietnam is the world's second-largest coffee exporter after Brazil. Yet most of that is green beans of the Robusta variety (bulk exports), with pricing power left to the international market.
Vietnam's coffee export price in Q1 2026 fell 16.9% year on year, but export volume rose. This is exactly what shows the "fragility of the bulk-export model." Because they try to make up with volume even when the price falls, the depletion of land, water and labor accelerates, but margins do not improve.
HAGL's strategy is an answer to this structural problem.
| The conventional Vietnamese coffee model | The model HAGL aims for |
|---|---|
| Source and collect from smallholders | Unified management on a directly managed farm |
| Green-bean (bulk) exports | Vertical integration through wet processing and extraction |
| Subordinate to international market prices | Premium price through quality proof |
| EUDR traceability is difficult | All processes provable at the farm level |
For the overall picture of Vietnam's coffee industry, see Vietnam's main crop items and cultivation techniques | Production strategies for coffee, rice and shrimp as well.
Is the "world's largest directly managed farm" feasible? A comparison of scale
How does the 20,000 ha scale HAGL aims for compare globally as a coffee farm?
By comparison, Brazil's large coffee farms (fazendas) are generally on the scale of hundreds to a few thousand hectares, and directly managed farms exceeding 10,000 ha are rare worldwide. Except for Ethiopia's state farms and some large plantations, a scale of 20,000 ha under single, directly managed, unified control could indeed match being "among the world's largest."
That said, the hurdle to achieving it is also high. Even if 7,000 ha are planted additionally in 2026, coffee trees take 3–4 years from planting to harvest. In other words, reaching the 2028 target requires beginning large-scale planting within this year and building out personnel, equipment and water-utilization infrastructure in parallel. HAGL's 2025 results (achieving 201% of its net-profit target) and the capital-investment plan announced this time show that this challenge is backed financially.
Impact on Japan's coffee import market
Japan is a major coffee importer, and Brazil, Vietnam and Colombia are its main supplying countries. Vietnamese product, as the Robusta variety, has been used heavily as a raw material for canned coffee and instant coffee.
The impact HAGL's move could have on the Japanese market is worth noting on the following points.
First, value as a procurement source of traceability-proven raw material. Japanese food makers are increasingly asked to respond to the EUDR indirectly (for example, when they have EU-bound trading partners). A structure that can source from a directly managed farm like HAGL's "with a certificate attached" holds a value distinct from mere price competition.
Next, usability in a specialty-coffee context. Building wet-process (washed) plants makes possible the "fruity, clean flavor" that Vietnamese Robusta has lacked. A new category of Vietnamese washed Robusta could emerge in Japan's specialty-coffee market.
Summary: HAGL's bet and the future of agribusiness
HAGL's 20,000 ha directly managed farm plan is a symbolic move in which Vietnam's coffee industry shifts "from volume to quality." The external pressure of the EUDR, the internal fragility of dependence on bulk exports, and value addition through the vertical integration of agriculture—it is a big gamble on the time axis of 2028, where these overlap.
Those with an interest in Vietnamese agriculture are advised to grasp the overall picture of the industry structure in Vietnam's main crop items and cultivation techniques and then read HAGL's move in context.
