The Central Highlands provinces of Dak Lak, Lam Dong, Dak Nong and GiaLai have planned to replant additional 19,224 hectares of coffee treesto enhance the quality and productivity of the sector during this year’srainy season.

Since 2010, the region has replanted and transplanted coffee trees on over 61,000 hectares.

Apartfrom applying farming techniques guided by the Ministry of Agricultureand Rural Development, local farmers and businesses have been usinghigh-yield seedlings on a larger scale.

The region is alsocalling for incentives for coffee tree replacement in terms of financialand technical assistance and infrastructure facility improvement tocontribute to the sustainable development of the sector.

According to the Central Highlands Steering Committee, about 140,000 -160,000 hectares of old coffee trees in the region need to be replacedwith new seedlings in the next five years.

The Central Highlands is now home to more than 90 percent ofVietnam’s 635,000 hectares of coffee trees. The region generates 2.3-2.5tonnes of beans every hectare and more than 1.5 million tonnes of beansevery crop; productivity that is currently 2.5-3 times higher than theglobal average.

In 2014, Vietnam exported more than 1.7 million tonnes of coffee beansworth over 3.4 billion USD, ranking second in terms of national exportvalues after rice.-VNA