The province has a large-scale agricultural sector, with key products including coffee, sugarcane, rubber, pepper, fruit and high-tech livestock. But substantial production volumes do not necessarily translate into proportional added value, with some products still sold as raw or semi-processed goods.
As market requirements become increasingly stringent, the province is focusing on reorganizing production, strengthening cooperation between businesses, cooperatives and farmers, and developing an ecosystem spanning production, processing, logistics and consumption.
Coffee is expected to deliver the most significant breakthrough in this strategy.
Gia Lai has more than 110,000 hectares of coffee, producing more than 360,000 tons annually. The share of deeply processed products, including roasted, instant and specialty coffee, is increasing as the sector shifts toward higher-value products.
Thái Như Hiệp, Chairman of the Members' Council and General Director of Vĩnh Hiệp Co., Ltd. in An Phú Ward, said the value of the coffee industry depends not only on output but also on quality and branding.
Gia Lai has the potential to become a center for high-quality Robusta coffee, he said, but standardized raw material areas and greater investment in deep processing are essential.
Vĩnh Hiệp has developed a plan for Gia Lai's coffee sector through 2030, with projected total investment of more than VND 18 trillion (about US$708 million). The plan aims to establish a closed ecosystem covering raw material areas, deep processing, central warehouses, coffee trading floors and research and development.
Local businesses and cooperatives have also established coffee value chains covering more than 45,530 hectares, linking production with consumption.
While coffee is leading efforts to raise agricultural value, sugarcane provides a clear example of how a circular economy can expand the value generated from a single crop.
Nguyễn Hoàng Phước, Deputy Director of An Khê Sugar Factory in An Khê Ward, said the factory supplies major companies including Vinamilk, Vinasoy, Pepsi, Nutifood, Bibica and Masan, while its products are also sold through domestic retail systems and are gradually being exported.
The factory can process 18,000 tons of sugarcane a day and produces more than 250,000 tons of sugar annually, accounting for more than 20% of the country's total sugar output from sugarcane.
The company plans to raise the factory's processing capacity to 25,000 tons of sugarcane per day, expand the An Khê Biomass Power Plant from 95 MW to 135 MW and develop the An Khê Ethanol Plant.
"Once these projects are completed, sugarcane will not only produce sugar but also generate clean energy, biofuels, and many high-value products, forming a closed production chain," Phước said.
The livestock sector is also moving from individual projects toward integrated production ecosystems.
Johan van den Ban, General Director of De Heus Vietnam and Asia, said De Heus, together with Hùng Nhơn Group, has launched the DHN Gia Lai High-Tech Agricultural Complex in Ia Le Commune, with investment of nearly VND 1 trillion (about US$39.3 million).
The complex links breeding stock, animal feed, farms, processing and traceability into a closed value chain.
From 2026 to 2036, De Heus and Hùng Nhơn plan to continue developing Gia Lai as a strategic area for high-tech agricultural value chains in the Central and Central Highlands regions, with projected investment of VND 2.8 trillion (about US$110 million).
The planned projects include storage and transshipment warehouses for raw materials, animal feed factories, high-tech chicken and pig farms, and a corn raw material area producing about 300,000 tons. The aim is to secure supplies, stabilize output and reduce dependence on imports.
Experience across the province's major agricultural sectors shows that stronger links between businesses, cooperatives and farmers are critical to making value chains work effectively.
Gia Lai currently has 226 production-consumption linkage chains covering 253,100 hectares. They focus on key products including pepper, cashew, rubber, sugarcane, cassava, durian, banana and passion fruit.
Under the Crop Production Development Plan for 2026-2030, with a vision to 2035, issued by the Provincial People's Committee under Decision No. 1877/QĐ-UBND in April 2026, Gia Lai aims to increase the share of deeply processed products in coffee, durian and passion fruit by 10-15% annually by 2030.
The province also aims for more than half of the export value of its key crop products, coffee, pepper, cashew, rubber, durian, passion fruit and banana, to come from preliminary processing, processing and deep processing.
The plan targets an average agricultural product value of VND 160-165 million per hectare (about US$6,290-6,490) by 2030.
Nguyễn Thị Diễm Hằng, Vice Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Vinanutrifood Bình Định JSC in Tây Sơn Commune, said businesses could not develop sustainably if they only purchased agricultural products seasonally.
Instead, businesses need long-term partnerships with cooperatives to jointly plan production, transfer technology and control quality from the raw material areas, she said.
Such partnerships can give farmers greater confidence to invest in production while helping optimize the value of agricultural products and gradually establish large-scale, stable fruit-growing areas capable of meeting rising international market requirements.
Closing agricultural value chains, however, extends beyond individual sectors.
The province's transformation also depends on the coordinated development of transport infrastructure, industrial parks and clusters, logistics centers and digital infrastructure, alongside efforts to attract more businesses into deep processing.
These links can connect production and processing more closely with distribution and consumption.
Nguyễn Đình Kha, Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Trade, said: "When possessing brands, processed products, and distribution networks, the locality will be more proactive in participating in global supply chains and enhancing resilience to market fluctuations."
From raw material areas to processing facilities, and from production linkages to logistics and branding, Gia Lai's key agricultural sectors are gradually forming closed value chains.
As more value is retained within raw material areas, farmers gain greater opportunities to increase their incomes while businesses have more room to invest and expand.
Each processing plant can also generate broader activity in related sectors, helping shift the province's growth model from one based primarily on scale toward higher-quality growth and laying the foundation for Gia Lai to gradually become an agro-forestry processing hub of the Central Highlands.