About 4 million coffee seedlings will be provided to CentralHighlands farmers to replace aging trees in 2015 through cooperationbetween the Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) Agriculture and ForestryScience Institute (WASI), the Nestlé Vietnam Co. Ltd, and the NescaféPlan project.
Nestlé will support 50 percent of the seedling purchase expenses, said WASI Director Le Ngoc Bau.
From 2011 to 2014, the WASI and Nestlé worked together to distributeover 11 million coffee seedlings to tens of thousands of low-incomefarmers in the Central Highlands, he noted.
Baunoted that the Nescafé Plan has been assisting local farmers to plantnew coffee varieties that can generate up to 7 tonnes of beans perhectare.
Over 20 percent of the region’s coffee areafeature 20-year-old trees or above, at which point the trees lose halftheir yield potential. About 140,000-150,000 hectares of old trees willneed to be replaced with new seedlings in the next decade.
The Nescafé Plan has also provided cultivation technique training,raising the number of farmers adopting the international 4C (Common Codefor the Coffee Community) standards for sustainable production andtrading up to 13,800 in 2014 from 1,745 in 2011.
TheCentral Highlands is now home to more than 90 percent of Vietnam’s635,000 hectares of coffee trees. The region generates 2.3-2.5 tonnes ofbeans every hectare and more than 1.5 million tonnes of beans everycrop; a productivity that is currently 2.5-3 times higher than theglobal average, Bau told the Vietnam News Agency in a separate report.
In 2014, Vietnam exported more than 1.7million tonnes of coffee beans worth over 3.4 billion USD, rankingsecond in terms of national export values after rice.-VNA
Nestlé will support 50 percent of the seedling purchase expenses, said WASI Director Le Ngoc Bau.
From 2011 to 2014, the WASI and Nestlé worked together to distributeover 11 million coffee seedlings to tens of thousands of low-incomefarmers in the Central Highlands, he noted.
Baunoted that the Nescafé Plan has been assisting local farmers to plantnew coffee varieties that can generate up to 7 tonnes of beans perhectare.
Over 20 percent of the region’s coffee areafeature 20-year-old trees or above, at which point the trees lose halftheir yield potential. About 140,000-150,000 hectares of old trees willneed to be replaced with new seedlings in the next decade.
The Nescafé Plan has also provided cultivation technique training,raising the number of farmers adopting the international 4C (Common Codefor the Coffee Community) standards for sustainable production andtrading up to 13,800 in 2014 from 1,745 in 2011.
TheCentral Highlands is now home to more than 90 percent of Vietnam’s635,000 hectares of coffee trees. The region generates 2.3-2.5 tonnes ofbeans every hectare and more than 1.5 million tonnes of beans everycrop; a productivity that is currently 2.5-3 times higher than theglobal average, Bau told the Vietnam News Agency in a separate report.
In 2014, Vietnam exported more than 1.7million tonnes of coffee beans worth over 3.4 billion USD, rankingsecond in terms of national export values after rice.-VNA
