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Vietnam to try its hand at cocoa
HANOI - Hoping to expedite
cocoa development in Vietnam, agriculture authorities
have staked out the Central Highlands (Tay Nguyen) as the
site of Vietnam's biggest cocoa plantation.
The
endeavor comes as part of an ambitious plan drafted by
the National Institute of Agricultural Planning and
Production (NIAPP) and the American Cocoa Research
Institute (ACRI) to put Vietnam on the circuit of major
cocoa producers by 2010. Under the project, the
country's existing plantations will be expanded to
80,000 hectares in four different areas of the south,
and are expected to generate about 120,000 tons of cacao
each year by 2010.
Given its ideal growing
conditions, the Central Highlands region is slated to
become the home of Vietnamese chocolate with a total
28,500 hectares of plantations, of which Dac Lac
province will house almost half. To help carry out the
plan, ACRI has roped in US firms - the Chocolate
Producers' Association and M&M Mars Co - to
provide high-quality cacao seeds and farming techniques
for the ranchers.
In turn, the area's
Agricultural and Forestry Science Institute developed 37
varieties of high-yield cacao hybrids - many of which
have had their seeds sown throughout Tay Nguyen region
with promising results. With the US firms
promising to consume all the cocoa, local farmers are
expected to be heartened about replacing their crops
with a plant they have never grown before.
According to NIAPP experts, now is the time for
Vietnam to churn out cocoa as regional competitors are
grappling with production problems.
Indonesia
and Malaysia lead Asia's industry, but this may change
as Indonesian cacao has been plagued by insects and
Malaysia's plantations are in danger of being replaced
by palm trees, NIAPP experts explained. Cacao trees have
grown in Vietnam for more than a century, first in the
Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta planted by the French in 1878. But
given its low profitability, farmers pretty much ignored
it at that time.
The country now has a few small
plantations, mainly in the Central Highlands, in some
central coastal provinces and along the Cuu Long River
Delta. Dac Lac, located in the Tay Nguyen region, is
considered to have the highest potential for crop
cultivation.
Authorities estimate that after
2010, when all of the province's 10,000 hectares of
cacao are cultivated, its yield will be about 17,000
tons of cocoa per year. The province plans to export
between 50 and 60 percent of the total production, and
expects to increase its agricultural production revenue
by an additional VND233.6 billion (US$15.5 million) from
cocoa production.
Experts said the country's
cacao plan will create a need for a domestic cocoa
processing industry. A series of projects to build such
plants is in the works, and is expected to be completed
in coming years.
Overall, emphasizing cacao is
hoped to reap not only material gain, but alleviate
social ills caused by the high Central Highlands
unemployment and poverty rates. Dac Lac alone expects to
create an additional 10,000 jobs.
(Asia
Pulse/VNA)
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