Program Summary

Over the last 40 years efforts have been made to cultivate cocoa on a large scale in Vietnam. However, past failures have made policymakers and many farmers skeptical of cocoa’s viability as an economic crop for the country. Due to the fact that these failures were not due to agronomic or climatic limitations to growing cocoa but instead resulted from the lack of domestic demand and no access to international markets, Vietnam’s new open and market-driven economy has sparked a renewed interest in cocoa development in the country. Cocoa development in Vietnam not only benefits smallholder farmers by increasing their income as well as diversifying their income sources, but cocoa-based agroforestry will mitigate the problems of rapid deforestation in Vietnam.  

In mid-2003, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), through its Food for Progress program, funded the three-year Sustainable Cocoa Enterprise Solutions for Smallholders (SUCCESS) Alliance program in Vietnam The SUCCESS Alliance is a public-private partnership consisting of US government donors, The World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), Mars Inc., and ACDI/VOCA. This initiative builds on the successful SUCCESS Alliance cocoa programs in Indonesia and the Philippines and on the strong relationship that ACDI/VOCA has developed with the cocoa industry. The Alliance’s goal is to increase the incomes of smallholder farmers in Vietnam through the introduction of sustainable, diversified cocoa-based agroforestry systems.

Subsequent to the USDA grant, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) also contributed Global Development Alliance (GDA) funds to the SUCCESS Alliance, primarily to help establish the marketing channels and improve quality of fermented cocoa beans in Vietnam.

Recently, ACDI/VOCA won an additional grant from USAID to expand the SUCCESS Alliance and introduce cocoa to approximately 1,500-1,800 smallholder farmers in the Lak and Ea’Kar districts of Dak Lak Province in the Central Highlands region. SUCCESS in the Central Highlands will target poor and ethnic minority communities. This grant will allow ACDI/VOCA to extend improved cocoa farming systems and cropping practices for cocoa using the same methodologies that have been so successful in other parts of the country.

Other partners of the SUCCESS Alliance in Vietnam include Nong Lam University (NLU) in Ho Chi Minh City, the provincial Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development in the provinces of Ben Tre, Binh Phuoc and Ba Ra Ria Vung Tau, and the Department of Science and Technology in Tien Giang province.

The SUCCESS Alliance program in Vietnam seeks to:

• Increase and diversify farmer incomes in southern Vietnam by establishing high-quality cocoa production on approximately 7,500 hectares of land, which will be the beginning of a sustainable cocoa production sector in Vietnam;
• Develop and publish a cocoa training manual and cocoa growing manuals in Vietnamese which will be the primary reference materials for cocoa farmers and extension agents in Vietnam;
• Train 17,000 smallholder farmers in southern Vietnam in sustainable cocoa production using best practices to produce high-quality cocoa through cocoa farmer clubs, Farmer Field Schools, technical short courses on growing cocoa, and farmer to cocoa farmer demonstrations on model farms;
• Provide extension support and follow-up to farmers who establish cocoa through regular technical extension visits, farmer field days, and demonstration of model cocoa cropping systems and post-harvest processing;
• Develop Vietnam National Cocoa Bean Quality Standards to help establish Vietnam as a source of high-quality, fermented cocoa beans; and
• Facilitate linkages between cocoa producers and the world market through regular meetings between farmers, traders and policy makers about cocoa development in Vietnam and regularly broadcast price information on TV, radio, and in print media.

The following accomplishments have been made to date:

• The program is working in four provinces Ben Tre and Tien Giang in the Mekong Delta, and Binh Phuoc and Ba Ria Vung Tau in the Southeastern Region.
• 202 extensionists and lead farmers have been trained to lead cocoa clubs. There are 202 cocoa clubs of 40 farmers each operating at this time.
• Approximately 8,000 new cocoa farmers have received high-quality seedlings and are participating in monthly training.
• 19 cocoa nurseries have been established with a combined production and vegetative propagation capacity of approximately 1.5 million seedlings per planting season.
• 13 cocoa clonal varieties have been approved by the government of Vietnam for promotion and dissemination to farmers;
• Approximately 2,500 additional hectares of cocoa have been planted with direct assistance from the Alliance.
• Five model fermentories have been established to demonstrate and verify proper fermentation protocols in Vietnam under varying conditions.
• With financial and technical support from the SUCCESS Alliance, Vietnam's
  first National Cocoa Bean Quality Standards have been approved by the
  Ministry of Science and Industry on February 2006.