32 VIETNAM
As world cocoa prices continue to trade at historic highs amid political instability in Côte d’Ivoire there is good news for cocoa- hungry buyers concerned about supply. Vietnam is set to maintain recent rapid growth in output, as Maja Wallengren reports
I
n 2004 Vietnam produced 320 tonnes of cocoa, but just six years later that figure has grown to around 3,000 tonnes,
according to the International Cocoa Organization. From just 600 hectares in 2000 to about
1,500 hectares in 2004, Vietnam’s cocoa growing area continued to increase. The area planted with cocoa reached 4,500 hectares in 2005 and about 15,000 hectares by 2010. Exact figures are hard to come by, and
estimates for production and acreage vary quite a bit depending on who you talk to, but one thing is certain: Vietnam is growing and it’s growing fast.
Cargill has big plans
"Vietnam has good potential for exporting cocoa. Over the next few years, we will see that crop growing significantly and then ultimately we will put a processing plant here to add value in the country of origin," said Paul Conway, senior vice president for Cargill Inc. Vietnam’s Agriculture Ministry has
announced an official target for cocoa pro- duction of 60,000 tonnes by 2015 and 80,000 tonnes by 2020. In a recent report the ministry said the total cocoa area had surpassed 10,000 hectares by June 2010, with average yields projected to reach at least 400kg per hectare once trees enter maturity. Private estimates put the current cocoa acreage in Vietnam at between 12,000 and 16,000 hectares. Vietnam’s cocoa production is primarily
located in the southern part of the country, which has ideal geographical and climate conditions for coffee growing. Stretched out across the tropical plains from the
Vietnam: the world’s new cocoa frontier?
Helvetas has provided around US$500,000 for research and technical assistance programmes for Vietnamese farmers (photo: Matt Bennett)
southeastern Mekong Delta region to most of the provinces in the Central Highlands, cocoa cultivation takes place in more than 15 provinces including Ben Tre, Tinn Giang, Vung Tau, Dak Lak and Lam Dong.
Farmers
welcome new crop "Cocoa beans have been an important source of income for farmers in these provinces, and especially meaningful in diversifying Vietnam’s agricultural produce and hard-currency exports," said Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Nam Hai in a recent interview with the Vietnamese press. Cocoa cultivation has also helped cof-
fee farmers improve incomes in years when coffee prices were low, and farmers have found that cocoa prices have been more stable over most of the last decade.
Rush to get involved
The last decade has seen a ‘cocoa rush’ into Vietnam, with multiple foreign compa- nies, traders, aid agencies and internation- al partnerships moving into the country and setting up programmes that are helping to increase production and enhance quality and yields.
Among the farmers first to partner with
Vietnam’s cocoa was the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) which, in 2000, launched the ‘Nong Lam University Cocoa Project’ aimed at providing technical assis- tance to Vietnamese farmers on how to improve crop husbandry. "Cocoa cultivation in the country dates
back to 1878, when the French first intro- duced the crop, along with several other cash crops. Since then, cocoa has been farmed on a relatively minor scale," said the WCF’s Bill Guyton. Following the introduction of market
reforms in Vietnam in the early 1990s, Vietnamese farmers started looking at increasing production, but world prices at the time provided little incentive for invest- ing. Just 10 years later the picture has changed significantly and after almost a decade of steadily rising prices Vietnamese farmers have been quick to turn the trend around. "Today, the global situation and outlook
for cocoa are strikingly different. Cocoa prices are at historically high levels and farmers are eager to learn about how to grow the crop in a sustainable way," said Mr Guyton in a report on a recent visit to farm- ers in the Dak Lak province, where cocoa is grown in intercrop systems with other tree crops like cashew nuts and bananas.
May 2011 C&CI
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