Vietnam to Cultivate 20,000Ha of Cocoa by 2010
Vietnam plans to expand its total cocoa plantation area to as many as 20,000 hectares by 2010 in order to diversify the country’s variety of agricultural products for exports, according to the Cultivation Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The targeted area includes nearly 10,000ha of cocoa at harvestable time by the year with an averaged output of 1.5 tons of cocoa per hectare, the department said.
To this end, the country will cultivate an additional 7,000ha of cocoa trees to increase the current cocoa acreage to 16,000ha in 2006 alone.
Until now, cocoa trees have not been considered a new plant and new varieties of cocoa tree have not been planted. In many localities, farmers find their own way, planting cocoa trees between other kinds of tree.
At the recent meeting on cocoa trees, the National Agriculture Extension Center said it would positively support development of this plant. Farmers will be trained for growing, harvesting, and storing techniques. Poor growers will get 100 per cent seed support. Cocoa tree will be recognized as new plant. Cocoa growers can get loans from banks under guarantee by local association of farmers.
Cocoa trees are now mostly being developed in central highlands Dak Lak province and southern provinces of Ben Tre, Ba Ria Vung Tau, Binh Phuoc and Tien Giang.
The ministry also said that although cocoa is now grown in nine provinces, at least 27 provinces are well-suited to high-quality cocoa crops. The current yield is still too small to export, but the ministry eventually plans to sell 15,000 tons of high-quality cocoa abroad in the coming years.
Vietnam Economic Times
Vietnamese
