The current situation of cacao in the south of Vietnam
Dam Sao Mai
Book of abstracts, APS2010 & SEAsia2010 & GMS2010, August 2-4, 2010, Radisson Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand
2010
บทคัดย่อ
Viet Namis considered one of the high potential countries of the world in making and exporting high cacao quality. Presently, according to Agriculture and Rural Development Department (A&RDD), although cacao area of the country is nearly 14,OOOha, concentrated in the South provinces, but in 2009 Vietnam have only around 6,500ha cacao which is harvested with average yield 1.13 tons/ha. The farmers use different kinds of cloning varieties, such as: TD1, TD3, TD5, TD6, TD7, tD8, TD9, TD10, TD11, TD14. Depend on provinces they have used the suitable varieties to plant (table 1). In 2009 the total seed yield of main six cacao growing provinces is 7320 tons. The farmers usually intercrop the cacao tree with different kinds of other trees, such as: coffee, pepper, cashew, coconut fruit-tree gardens and the mix gardens (table 1).
After harvesting, most of famers sell fresh cacao fruits (77%) to dealer or agent who will ferment cacao seeds. Only some famers (23%) who has larger cacao area and has techniques can ferment their cacao seeds (table 7). After fermentation most person dry cacao under the sunshine, this method depend on the environment. Very few person (5-10%) has the solar energy drier (table 5). Although the Vietnamese cacao quality is high and the area is good for cacao tree growing, but if the farmers have no suitable method of growing, postharvest processing, the cacao development does not increase quickly.
Vietnammust focus on the planning stages of cacao-growing region, varieties selection, establishing the growing and postharvest process techniques, training the farmers, and step by step must develop the cacao processing industry towards the diversification of cacao products.