History: East Germany invested equivalent of tens of millions to increase the coffee production in Vietnam, in exchange for 50% of the Vietnamese coffee harvest for 20 years. The first usable harvest occurred in 1990, East Germany was already dissolved.
In 1980 and 1986, two treaties were signed between East Germany and Vietnam, whereby East Germany provided the necessary equipment and machinery for production, increased the area of coffee plantations from 600 to 8,600 hectares (1,500 to 21,300 acres), and trained the local population in cultivation techniques.
In particular, East Germany provided trucks, machinery, and irrigation systems for the newly founded Kombinat Việt-Đức, as well as spending approximately $20 million on a hydropower plant. East Germany also built housing, hospitals, and shops for the 10,000 people who were relocated to the area for coffee production. Against this investment, East Germany was scheduled to receive half of the coffee harvest for the next 20 years. However, coffee takes eight years from planting until the first usable harvest, which occurred in 1990; at which point the East German state had already ceased to exist.