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Abstract
Vietnam grew from an insignificant to the world’s second largest coffee producer during
the 1990s. To understand this growth, this paper examines Vietnamese coffee growers’
investment decisions using real options theory. The study finds that producers, with variable
costs of 19 cents/lb and total cost of 29.3 cents/lb, would enter coffee production at a coffee price
of 47 cents/lb and exit at a coffee price of 14 cents/lb. Most Vietnamese growers appear to be
sufficiently efficient to continue producing coffee even at relatively depressed price levels.