Collaboration for Agriculture & Rural Development: " Cocoa Fermentation and Drying and Quality Assessment in Vietnam " potx

1 Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development Collaboration for Agriculture & Rural Development 013VIE05 VIE: Cocoa Fermentation and Drying and Quality Assessment in Vietnam COCOA FARMERS SURVEY: BEN TRE, CAN THO and DAK LAK PROVINCES 2006 & 2007 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgements 5 Introduction 5 Section 1: List of Participants 7 Gender 10 Ben Tre Province: 10 Can Tho Province: 10 Dak Lak and Dak Nong 10 Age Distribution 10 Can Tho Province: 11 Dak Lak and Dak Nong 11 2.3 Education level 11 Ben Tre Province: 11 Can Tho Province: 11 Dak Lak and Dak Nong 11 2.4 Family size 11 Ben Tre Province: 12 Can Tho Province: 12 Dak Lak and Dak Nong 12 2.5 Occupation 12 Ben Tre Province: 12 Can Tho Province: 13 Dak Lak and Dak Nong 13 Section 3: Establishment of cocoa 13 3.1. Sources of information on growing cocoa 13 Ben Tre Province 13 Can Tho Province 14 Dak Lak and Dak Nong 14 3.2 Purchasing of cocoa seedlings. 14 3.2.1 Distance to travel to purchase seedlings 14 Can Tho Province 15 Dak Lak and Dak Nong Provinces 15 3.2.2 Prices paid for seedlings 15 Ben Tre Province 15 Can Tho Province 15 Dak Lak and Dak Nong 16 3.3 Labour and time inputs for planting seedlings 16 3.4 Time for production of pods 16 Ben Tre Province 16 3.5 Pod production with time 17 Section 4: Farm Demographics 17 4.1 Size of farm and area planted to cocoa 17 Ben Tre Province: 17 Can Tho Province: 19 Dak Lak and Dak Nong 19 4.2 Plantings of cocoa 19 Ben Tre 19 Can Tho Province 20 Dak Lak and Dak Nong 21 4.3 Density of cocoa tree plantings 21 Ben Tre Province: 21 3 Can Tho Province 22 Dak Lak and Dak Nong 22 4.4 Outlook for growing cocoa 22 Ben Tre Province 22 4.5 Crop Diversification 22 Ben Tre Province 22 Can Tho Province 22 Dak Lak and Dak Nong Provinces 23 Section 5: Time and labour inputs in processing cocoa 23 5.1 Harvesting pods 23 Ben Tre Province 23 5.2 Pod Storage 24 5.3 Breaking of pods 24 5.4 Fermentation of cocoa 24 5.5 Transferring beans from fermenting boxes to drying baskets 24 5.6 Drying of cocoa 25 Section 6: Selling of cocoa crop 25 Category 1: Selling fermented and dried cocoa 28 Ben Tre Province 28 Can Tho, Dak Lak and Dak Nong Provinces. 29 Category 3: Selling pods only 29 Ben Tre Province 29 Can Tho, Dak Lak and Dak Nong Provinces. 30 Category 2: Selling both fermented dried beans and pods 30 Ben Tre, Can Tho, Dak Lak and Dak Nong Provinces 30 Can Tho, Dak Lak and Dak Nong Provinces. 32 Summary of findings re labour and incomes 32 Section 7: Conclusions 34 4 List of Figures Figure 1: Age distribution of cocoa farmers in Ben Tre 10 Figure 2: Educational level of Cocoa farmers in Ben Tre 11 Figure 3: Family size of cocoa farmers in Ben Tre 12 Figure 4: Occupations amongst cocoa farmers in Ben Tre 12 Figure 5: Sources of information for cocoa growers in Ben Tre 13 Figure 6: “Other” sources of information in Ben Tre 14 Figure 7: Distance to seedling buying point 14 Figure 8: Price paid for seedlings in Ben Tre 15 Figure 9: Time for seedlings to produce pods in Ben Tre 16 Figure 10: Average weekly pod production after planting 17 Figure 11: Farm size distribution in Ben Tre 17 Figure 12: Area planted to cocoa 18 Figure 13: Percent farm area planted to cocoa in Ben Tre survey 18 Figure 14: Trees planted on seventy five farms in Ben Tre 19 Figure 15: Newly planted farms in Ben Tre 20 Figure 16: Cocoa tree density 21 Figure 17: Method of selling cocoa crop in Ben Tre in 2006 27 Figure 18: Changes in method of selling cocoa in twenty five selected farmers 27 Figure 19: Companies sold to. 28 Figure 20: Prices paid by major buyers 29 Figure 21: Buyers of pods in Ben Tre in 2006 & 2007 29 Figure 22: Average prices paid for fermented dried beans & pods 30 Figure 23: Average prices paid by different buyers in Ben Tre in 2006 & 2007 31 List of Tables Table 1: Farm size and area planted to cocoa in six selected farms in Dak Lak and Dak Nong 19 Table 2: Plantings of cocoa on seven selected farms in Dak Lak & Dak Nong provinces 21 Table 3: The average number of hectares under cocoa cultivation, percentage of farm under cocoa and average number of trees of different category of farmers 26 Table 4: Prices received by selling pods in VND/kg pod and VND/kg dry bean equivalent in Ben Tre in 2007. 32 5 Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank AusAID and the Vietnam Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for approving the project and AusAID funding. Thanks also to the staff of Can Tho University, Nong Lam University and Western Highlands Agricultural Science Institute who contributed their time and labour to project activities. This is especially the case for Huynh Xuan Phong from Can Tho and Pham Van Thao from WASI The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in Ben Tre province is thanked for their assistance in farmer surveys and the selection of smallholder sites for solar dryer evaluation. Smilja Lambert of MARS, inc. is thanked fro her assistance with project activities, her technical advice and liaison with the Vietnamese cocoa industry and research Institutes involved. Le Thi Tuyet of the World Cocoa Foundation, Sustainable Cocoa Development Program is thanked for her assistance and advice and organising fermentation and drying trials in Ben Tre and at Nong lam University. Success Alliance is also thanked for their in providing information regarding the cocoa industry in Vietnam and in the establishment of solar dryers and fermenting boxes at their demonstration farm sites in Ben Tre Province. Introduction In 2006 the Collaboration for Agriculture & Rural Development (CARD) program approved a project on “Fermentation and Drying and Quality Assessment of Cocoa in Vietnam”. This was in response to the Vietnamese Government’s intention of having10,000 hectares of cocoa planted by 2010. During the conduct of this project, projected plantings of cocoa, by the Vietnamese Agricultural Ministry, have changed this aim to 60,000 hectares by 2015 and 80,000 hectares by 2020. The government is pledging VND 40Billion in the country’s burgeoning cocoa trade. Cocoa production is expected to be at 52,000 tonnes by 2015 and 108,000 tonnes by 2020. This would make Vietnam one of South East Asia’s largest cocoa producers with estimated annual revenue of $120M by 2020. An essential part of this plan is to refine cocoa fermentation and drying (processing) procedures, from other cocoa growing countries to suit the Vietnamese environmental and social conditions. During this project, experimentation has been conducted with fermentation and drying procedures and preferred methodologies established. Adherence to these procedures will ensure a high quality cocoa, which should attract a premium price. The adoption of solar driers was also expected to result in reduced labour and time inputs as well as an increased capacity of farmers to process their crop. In 2005 there was quite a large survey conducted by the SUCCESS Alliance project that included the size of farms in Ben Tre, number of cocoa trees, type of planting materials, number of households, the ways they are doing fermentations and also about the other crops that are grown in these farms (coconut, fruit trees, pineapple ) The study also included predictions about the combination of crops farmers could employ which produced the best income. This survey was mainly related to what farmers were earning growing other crops and a theoretical prediction of what they could earn from intercropping with cocoa. This CARD survey addressed only what farmers are making directly from cocoa and related issues. In the follow-up survey in Ben Tre, there are a few discrepancies regarding gender, age, educational levels and number of family members with the 2006 survey. This is possibly due to the person being interviewed and factors such as family members moving to other households. Where a discrepancy occurs, the 2006 figure is used. 6 This baseline survey should provide a useful guideline and reference. It will help to ensure the best picture of the current situation and so be helpful in evaluating the impact of the CARD project on smallholder/cooperative farmers in Ben Tre and Western Highlands provinces. The survey was meant to address the following factors: • Family/ village distribution of income and labour and associated social factors. • Industry factors such as transportation and marketing procedures • Assessment of price and availability of materials required for fermentation boxes, solar driers and solar hot houses. • Assessment of most suitable locations for fermentation boxes and dryers for on-farm trials. • Participate in initial fermentation and drying trials. This can be done at the research institute or at a nearby fermentary or village site, where the presently existing procedures are applied • Village techniques and labour inputs re harvest., fermentation and drying and incomes received for it The survey was conducted in two stages. Firstly a baseline survey was conducted of fifty farmers in Ben Tre and six in the Western Highlands in August 2006. Three farmers in Ben Tre and one in Dak Lak were then provided with solar driers and a follow up survey conducted in December 2007. In this manner, most of the issues to be addressed were met and an estimate of the impact of adoption of methodologies made. 7 Section 1: List of Participants Year surveyed ID Name Village District Province 2006 2007 1 Nguyen Thi Le Cam Yun Mo Cay Ben Tre √ 2 Nguyen Thi Kim Loan (ED&F MAN) Son Dong Ben Tre Ben Tre √ 3 Huynh Minh Thi Lung Hoa Giong Tram Ben Tre √ √ 4 Thai Van Be Phuoc Thanh, Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ √ 5 Nguyen Van Tam Tan Trung, Mo Cay Ben Tre √ 6 Druong Van Tuong Binh Khanh Tay Mo Cay Ben Tre √ 7 Dinh Van An Hoa Loc Mo Cay Ben Tre √ 8 Le Hoang Sau Ngai Dang Mo Cay Ben Tre √ √ 9 Le Van Quan Ngai Dang Mo Cay Ben Tre √ 10 Le Van Phuoc Luong Hoa Giong Trom Ben Tre √ √ 11 Nguyen Van Nhieu Luong Hoa Giong Trom BenTre √ √ 12 Le Tan Dat Luong Hoa Giong Trom Ben Tre √ √ 13 Tran Van Mo Luong Hoa Giong Trom Ben Tre √ √ 14 Tran Quang Buu Phuoc Thans Chau Thans Ben Tre √ 15 Cao Thi Ha Tan Thans Chau Thans Ben Tre √ 16 Nhu Trung Phu An Hoa Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ √ 17 Pham Thi Cam Phu An Hoa Chau Thans Ben Tre √ 18 Nguyen Van Xue Tam Phuoc Chau Thans , Ben Tre √ 19 Nguyen Van Hieu Tam Phuoc Chau Thans Ben Tre √ 20 Dang Van Nau Long Thoi, Cho Lach, Ben Tre √ 21 Dang Van Phop Long Thoi, Cho Lach Ben Tre √ 22 Diep Kinh Luan Long Thoi, Cho Lach Ben Tre √ 23 Doan Thi Thieu Hoa Nghia, Cho Lach Ben Tre √ 24 Vo Van Ngai An Phuoc Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 25 Pham Thi Anh An Phuoc Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 8 26 Ngo Tan Si An Phuoc Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ √ 27 Cao Thi Nhan An Phuoc Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ √ 28 Nguyen Tan Khoa ,An Phuoc Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ √ 29 Phung Tan Thanh An Phuoc Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ √ 30 Chau Van Lam An Phuoc Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ √ 31 Nguyen Hong Phuong An Khanh Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 32 Nguyen Thi Tuoi An Khanh Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 33 Nam Suong (*) An Khanh Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ √ 34 Nguyen Van Lap An Khanh Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ √ 35 Tran Van Anh An Khanh Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 36 Bui Van Hoang Hnu Dinh Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 37 Nguyen Thi Thanh Hnu Dinh Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 38 Nguyen The Luc Hnu Dinh Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 39 Le Thanh Son Phu Duc Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 40 Pham Van Hung Phu Duc Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ √ 41 Tran Van Dung Thanh An Mo Cay Ben Tre √ √ 42 Le Hung Son (*) Phu Duc Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ √ 43 Le Truong Yon Thoi An Mo Cay Ben Tre √ 44 Le Huu Phuoc Ngai Dang Mo Cay Ben Tre √ √ 45 Vo Van Hoang Ngai Dang Mo Cay Ben Tre √ √ 46 Nguyen Van So Luong Hoa Giong Trom Ben Tre √ √ 47 Le Truc Lam Luong Hoa Giong Trom Ben Tre √ √ 48 Tran Minh Luan Luong Hoa Giong Trom Ben Tre √ √ 49 Nguyen Van Khoe Luong Hoa Giong Trom Ben Tre √ √ 50 Duong Van Khau Luong Hoa Giong Trom Ben Tre √ √ 51 Ceran Cehi Cehanh An Khanh Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 52 Nguyen Thi Dieu Hien Thuan Dien Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 53 Le Quoc Viet An Khan Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 54 Coran Ceruong Phu An Khan Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 55 Do Van Phuc Phu Duc Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 9 (*)Given solar drier 56 Le Thi Muoi Phu Tuc Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 57 Nguyen Thi Phan Phu Tuc Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 58 Phan Thi Anh Tuyet Phu Tuc Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 59 Le Thi Muoi Phu Tuc Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 60 Nguyen Thanh Phuong & Ho Thi Hong Hue (*Large Dryer) Phuoc Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 61 Luong Van Thong Tam Phuoc Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 62 Luong Thi Nam Tam Phuoc Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 63 Le Cong Minh Tam Phuoc Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 64 Nguyen Thi My Nhung Tam Phuoc Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 65 Nguyen Thi Thuy Dung Tam Phuoc Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 66 Tran Van Nham Tam Phuoc Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 67 Pham Trong Nhan, Tam Phuoc Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 68 Phan Thi Thanh Thuy Tam Phuoc Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 69 Le Van Bon Tien Thuy Chau Thanh Ben Tre √ 70 Vo Hong Chau Mo Cay Ben Tre √ 71 Le Cong Binh Mo Cay Ben Tre √ 72 Tran Van Lam Mo Cay Ben Tre √ 73 Nguyen Van Ren Mo Cay Ben Tre √ 74 Nguyen Minh Hien Mo Cay Ben Tre √ 75 Nguyen Thanh Xuan Mo Cay Ben Tre √ 76 Huynh Kim Vinh (*) Ba Lang Cai Rang Can Tho √ √ 77 Nguyen Thi Hue (*) Yang Mao Krong Bong Dak Lak √ √ 78 Bui Xuan Ngoc Do Ry Dak Mil Dak Nong √ √ 79 Hoang Kim Binh Do Ry Dak Mil Dak Nong √ √ 80 Dao Van Tuan DakRla Dak Mil Dak Nong √ √ 81 Huynh Van Thuong Cu Hue , Eakar Dak Lak √ √ 82 Hoang Van Phi Easo Eakar Dak Lak √ √ 10 Section 2: Farmer demographics Gender Ben Tre Province: Because of the size of the budget & time restraints of staff from Can Tho University, a large survey could not be conducted. There are approximately 2000 cocoa farmers in Ben Tre Province therefore a survey of 50 of them can not be regarded as truly representative. In the original survey conducted in July 2006, fifty farmers were asked to complete a questionnaire. In November 2007 a follow-up survey was conducted. Of the 50 farmers originally surveyed in Ben Tre, 25 were included in the follow-up. Two of these farmers had solar dryers. An additional twenty five farmers were also included in the survey. One of these twenty five new farmers had been given a solar dryer. This therefore increased the total number of farmers surveyed to seventy five which is hopefully more representative of impacts and attitudes to cocoa farming. These additional farmers were within the vicinity of where solar dryers had been placed, so that they had some idea of the concept and were able to communicate with farmers regarding them. In the original survey, ten of the fifty farmers surveyed were women. In the second survey, twelve of the new twenty five farmers were female. So of seventy five farmers surveyed in all, twenty two (29%) were female. Can Tho Province: In Can Tho province, there is only one substantial cocoa farmer, Huynh Kim Vinh and he was provided with a solar drier. Dak Lak and Dak Nong A total of six farmers were surveyed in these two provinces and one was female. This woman, Nguyen Thi Hue was supplied with a solar drier. Age Distribution Age Distribution Ben Tre 2006-2007 2, 3% 14, 19% 41, 54% 18, 24% 15-25 26-40 41-55 55+ Figure 1: Age distribution of cocoa farmers in Ben Tre The fact that the 15-25 year age group made up only three percent of the total number of farmers may indicate a lack of interest in the age group in pursuing agriculture for an income. The majority (78%) of farmers were aged over 41. [...]... pods was from neighbouring farmers for fermentation and this indicates that farmers saw an advantage in income from fermenting and drying In decreasing order were farmers for seedlings, local fruit markets, breeding farms, Tien Giang buyers, commercial fermentaries and ED&F Man This indicates that farmers in Ben Tre and Tien Giang were interested in expanding their plantings It also indicates that local... noted previously in figure 10, pod production starts two years after planting and then increases in years three and four Because of a lack of figures for production and incomes between 2000 and 2005, this factor could not be taken into account when calculating economic factors involved in producing and selling cocoa in this manner In the following figure, incomes are expressed as annual income per 100... their land is used for cocoa growing with associated intercropping and the remainder for other crops The number of trees planted is 600, 800, 600 and 700 respectively For these farms plantings were conducted in either 2002 or 2003, except for farmer 40 who planted 150 trees in 2004 and 250 in 2005 Therefore the average number of trees for farmers fermenting and drying their own cocoa is 675 trees Category... between 33% and 60% (table 1) of their land allocated to cocoa and therefore could expand production if they wished to 4.4 Outlook for growing cocoa Ben Tre Province Of the forty nine farmers surveyed in 2006; only fourteen intended to increase the area planted to cocoa and thirty five didn’t intend to increase the area planted No farmers intended to clear cocoa trees This is probably indicative of... VND1500-2000/kg in all three provinces This translates to VND10100-13468 in dry bean equivalents Summary of findings re labour and incomes An initial survey of farmer practices, time, labour, costs and income had been conducted, in Ben Tre Province, in August 2006 This survey was conducted to establish baseline figures for production, income, time & labour inputs etc and involved interviewing fifty farmers... to grow cocoa 3.3 Labour and time inputs for planting seedlings Obtaining quantifiable data on labour, time inputs and costs for planting cocoa seedlings proved difficult to obtain from farmers For the sake of this survey, it will be assumed that these factors are similar to that of the other two main cash crops i.e coconut, longans and other fruits Only prices paid for seedlings will be taken into account... the fifty original farmers were followed-up in 2007, it’s difficult to gain an accurate assessment of changes in the different selling categories over this eighteen month period Selling of cocoa in Ben Tre Province in 2006 Ferment cocoa Both selling pods & fermenting Selling pods only Seedling production only 4, 8% 4, 8% 13, 27% 28, 57% Figure 17: Method of selling cocoa crop in Ben Tre in 2006 Of the... source of information It should be noted that information coming from local government officials and farmers clubs has originated from the Success Alliance program Can Tho Province Mr Nam Vinh is unusual in that he started growing cocoa in 1985 Success Alliance is not active in Can Tho and he only lists a book (French) as a source of information He reported no change in information between 2006 and 2007... coconut with his cocoa 22 Dak Lak and Dak Nong Provinces Of the six farmers interviewed in these areas; one was growing cashews, coffee and fruit trees, one was growing coffee and fruit and one, cashews only The remaining three had cocoa as the only cash crop Section 5: Time and labour inputs in processing cocoa Farmers can be divided into four categories when it comes to the processing of cocoa: Category... reported spending 1-2 hours per week Therefore for all farmers, less than two hours a week is spent in turning beans during fermentation 5.5 Transferring beans from fermenting boxes to drying baskets At the end of fermentation beans are transferred to drying baskets Twenty two farmers reported spending less than one hour per week in transferring beans from fermentation boxes to drying trays The remainder reported . Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development Collaboration for Agriculture & Rural Development 013VIE05 VIE: Cocoa Fermentation and Drying and Quality Assessment in. Fermentation and Drying and Quality Assessment of Cocoa in Vietnam . This was in response to the Vietnamese Government’s intention of having10,000 hectares of cocoa planted by 2010. During. 3.3 Labour and time inputs for planting seedlings Obtaining quantifiable data on labour, time inputs and costs for planting cocoa seedlings proved difficult to obtain from farmers. For the sake