Vietnam Southern Province Licenses US$36.7 Mln Cocoa Processing Plant
Authorities of Mekong Delta Ben Tre province have licensed the Vietnam Cocoa JSC to build a cocoa processing plant with total investment of VND584 billion (US$36.7 million).
Construction of the plant, which is designed to have total capacity of 6,000 tons per annum, will start this August.
Ben Tre is now the biggest cocoa growing province in Vietnam with 3,000 hectares, of which 1,900 hectares are grown in coconut gardens and 1,095 hectares are in orchards. Some 1,000 hectares are harvestable with average output of 1-2.5 tons/hectare.
The province planned to increase the area to 10,000 hectares in response to the expansion of processing companies.
The crop has been grown in central highlands Dak Lak province, central Quang Ngai province and southern provinces of Binh Phuoc, ba Ria Vung Tau, Tien Giang and Can Tho.
Increasing coffee prices are encouraging Vietnamese farmers to expand coffee areas, but Luong Van Tu, chairman of the Vietnam Cocoa and Coffee Association said the farmers should expand cocoa areas because cocoa demand will sharply rise in the near times.
Currently, cocoa is selling well and for high prices at local market. A kilo of cocoa is offered at VND40,000 in Ben Tre in March, double the prices of three years earlier. (Saigon Liberation, Vietnam Agriculture)
Vietnamese
