A Catalyst for Vietnamese Coffee, Cocoa

Vietnam is the second largest coffee exporter in the world. Vietnamese coffee has high quality and becomes a favorite product in many countries. To create favorable conditions for coffee development, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has ratified the project on producing coffee and cocoa varieties for 2011-2015 with total investment capital worth VND66.2 billion. The project is expected to create a motive force for the strong and sustainable development of Vietnamese coffee and cocoa.

Le Ngoc Bau, the director of the Western Highlands Agro-Forestry Scientific and Technical Institute, the project investor, said that in recent years, the growing coffee areas are strongly increased from 190,000ha in 1996 to 561,000ha in 2000. Among those, more than 100,000ha coffee is going to be harvested. Eighty five percent of coffee is grown by farmers who create varieties by themselves, therefore, the quality and productivity is not high. The project on producing coffee and cocoa varieties is aimed at heightening coffee and cocoa variety production capability, meeting demand of variety for the coffee recultivation program and cocoa development program, producing new varieties which have high quality and productivity and is immune to diseases, gradually replacing varieties created by farmers.

The project focuses on the existing coffee growing areas. The project will supply 20 tonnes of Robusta coffee beans, three tonnes of Arabica coffee beans and two million of grafted coffee buds annually to meet demand of growing 20,000-22,000ha coffee. To cocoa, the project will provide 1.5 million of grafted cocoa buds, 300,000-400,000 grafted cocoa plants and one tonne of cocoa bean. Apart from supplying coffee and cocoa varieties, the project will build 4ha performance models of variety production technology including 2ha growing Robusta coffee in Tay Nguyen (Highland region), 1ha Arabica coffee in the northern mountainous areas and 1ha cocoa in the coastal areas of south central region.

Le Ngoc Bau added that VND66.2 billion will be given to the Western Highlands Agro-Forestry Scientific and Technical Institute to implement the project. Among those VND30 billion is sourced from the State budget and the remainders are contributed by businesses. Cocoa varieties producers will be supported with 50 percent of investment capital. Commercial cocoa variety producers will not receive any support from the project. The project will be executed in the provinces which have advantages to grow coffee and cocoa such as Dak Lak, Lam Dong, Gia Lai and Dak Nong. The institute will try to provide coffee and cocoa varieties to meet the market demand. However, to obtain high results, provinces should have support policies to create good varieties and strictly manage coffee variety trading.

In addition, the project will send two staff to take part in training courses on producing coffee varieties in India and two staff to join cocoa variety producing classes in Cote d’Ivoire. In addition, training courses on creating coffee and cocoa varieties will be held within the country for 600 staff to meet the demand of coffee and cocoa varieties and raise their economic value.

Vietnam has favorable conditions to grow cocoa in a large scale. The country can consider it as a key cash crop in the future. The demand of cocoa in the international market has strongly increased, therefore the output for cocoa is guaranteed. The EU and the US account for 50 percent of cocoa consumption in the world.

The project on producing coffee and cocoa varieties for 2011-2015 is considered as a catalyst for the development of Vietnamese coffee and cocoa in the future. In addition, the project pays attentions to ensuring technological standards in producing coffee and cocoa to promote export products and meet demand of difficult markets, effectively exploit the advantages of this sector.

According to the project on the development of cocoa until 2015 with a vision to 2020 valued VND40 billion of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the country strives to expand cocoa growing area to 60,000ha by 2015, among which 30,000ha serve business purposes with average productivity of 1.5tonnes per hectare, dry cocoa bean yield of 52,000 tonnes and export value of US$50-60 million./.

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