Making coffee a key crop in economic development

Attending the workshop were representatives of leaders of a number of provincial departments and branches; cooperatives, enterprises, and coffee growing households in the province.

In recent years, coffee trees have not only brought a stable source of income, but also played an important role in restructuring the agricultural sector, increasing added value, promoting exports and building local agricultural product brands. Up to now, the whole province has 24,000 hectares, accounting for over 41% of the total Arabica coffee area of the country. Son La's coffee trees are mainly grown in the area of Son La city (old), Mai Son, Thuan Chau, Sop Cop and Yen Chau.

The moderator moderated the discussion at the workshop.

In recent times, Son La province has issued policies to develop coffee trees. In particular, focusing on supporting the implementation of VietGAP procedures; building the Son La coffee brand; coffee value chain supporting new varieties, investing in raw material area infrastructure, granting growing area codes, developing processing technology, linking production and promoting trade, supporting exports, and seeking to expand markets. Up to now, 7 enterprises and cooperatives have been granted the right to use the geographical indication "Son La Coffee", exporting to 20 countries and territories, creating jobs and stable income for over 18,000 coffee growing households. There are 2 recognized high-tech application areas for coffee, with more than 1,039 hectares; 5 coffee products are OCOP certified; 9 industrial-scale processing facilities; every year, enterprises and cooperatives participate in deep processing of more than 5,405 tons of coffee beans. The structure of Son La coffee processing products is mainly green coffee, of which over 95% is exported, and about 5% of green coffee output is processed into ground coffee, powdered coffee, instant coffee, filter bag coffee, coffee husk tea consumed in and outside the province...

Representatives of departments and branches attended the workshop.

Representatives of cooperatives and coffee growers attended the workshop.

Besides the advantages, the development of coffee trees faces difficulties: Many areas of old coffee trees, low productivity, need to be replanted, but this requires large capital, long time and high technology. The scale of coffee production is still fragmented, causing difficulties in applying synchronous techniques, mechanization and chain linkage. Cooperatives do not have enough capacity to consume all output, leading to the situation of selling through intermediaries. Post-harvest preservation also has many potential risks, due to the lack of synchronous warehouse conditions, drying, drying and preservation systems, which can lead to quality reduction.

Delegates participated in discussion at the workshop.

Cooperative representatives give opinions at the workshop.

At the workshop, delegates focused on discussing and proposing solutions to turn coffee into a key crop. In particular, focusing on research and advising the Provincial People's Committee to issue a support mechanism for varieties to implement the coffee replanting program; planning planting areas, managing plant varieties; supporting trade promotion to expand export markets. Investing in research and improving deep processing technology to increase product value. Enterprises, cooperatives, and production households need to link up in building value chains, complying with EUDR regulations on coffee that does not cause deforestation...

Leaders of the Son La Union of Science and Technology Associations received delegates' opinions.

Leaders of the Son La Union of Science and Technology Associations received the opinions of delegates at the workshop and synthesized and reported to the province for consultation on solutions for coffee development in the following years.

Source: https://baosonla.vn/kinh-te/dua-cay-ca-phe-tro-thanh-cay-trong-chu-luc-trong-phat-trien-kinh-te-AfZsfRCNR.html