NESCAFÉ Plan devotes to Vietnamese coffee sustainable development

NESCAFÉ Plan's sustainable coffee production competition

The event was organised by the Vietnamese Coffee-Cocoa Association in tandem with the Dak Nong People’s Committee.

The global NESCAFÉ Plan initiative has been deployed by Nestlé Group since 2010 in more than 10 countries in major coffee growing areas globally in an attempt to bring sustainable values to coffee growers, communities, and the planet.

The project also attests to Nestlé’s commitment to creating shared values to the coffee value chain. Of the relevant stakeholder countries, together with Brazil, NESCAFÉ Plan in Vietnam has been regarded as reaping the greatest success.

In Vietnam, NESCAFÉ Plan – a public-private partnership co-operation programme between Nestlé, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Western Highlands Agriculture and Forestry Science Institute (WASI) and local agricultural extension bodies in five Central Highlands’ provinces – aims to perfect the coffee value chain from farmers to consumers.

From 2011 until present, the project has contributed to improving 20,000ha of aging coffee area. The company has collected 25-30 per cent of Vietnamese coffee output for its production needs and for export, and distributed more than 27 million quality seedlings to coffee growers.

In addition, NESCAFÉ Plan has provided training to more than 200,000 farmers on sustainable farming, helping over 21,000 farmers to acquire 4C international certificates and increasing the income of farmers using NESCAFÉ Plan techniques by 30 per cent.

NESCAFÉ Plan also helps protect the natural environment through reducing irrigated water usage by 40 per cent and chemical fertiliser and pesticide use by 20 per cent.

The competition held on December 9-10, 2018 promoting sustainable coffee production among local farmers was one of the regular annual activities of the project to create a level playing field where local farmers from diverse stakeholder locations can meet and exchange experiences and improve knowledge about sustainable agricultural practices.

The competition consisted of two parts: theory and practice. The theory part provided farmers with multi-choice questions related to sustainable coffee production.

The practice part required farmers to taste a product, then identify the coffee beans’ quality, helping farmers to differentiate and clearly understand the value of different coffee types.

The Vietnamese Coffee Day provides a chance to praise valued contributions from individuals and organisations operating in the coffee industry.

With 575,000ha coffee area out of a total of more than 600,000ha across the country and an annual output surpassing 1.4 million tonnes, the Central Highlands region is Vietnam’s major coffee growing area (mostly Robusta coffee).

Despite being the world’s largest Robusta coffee nation, Vietnamese coffee is facing several problems casting adverse impacts on the segment’s long-term development.

Accordingly, the quality of Vietnamese coffee is still limited as most coffee farmers plant and harvest by following traditional methods without the application of modern science and technology.

Additionally, aging coffee areas have also affected coffee output and quality.

Since its launch in 2011, NESCAFÉ Plan has been proactive in presenting solutions as well as deploying concrete activities to support the sustainable development of the Vietnamese coffee industry.

In the past nearly eight years, Nestlé’s expert team has been co-operating closely with farmers and partners from the Western Highlands Agriculture and Forestry Science Institute (WASI), helping to replace traditional farming methods by modern alternatives through the NESCAFÉ Plan project.

Besides, quality coffee seedlings were provided to farmers to help reduce ageing areas, helping farmers to boost incomes and maintain a sustainable planting environment to cope with climate change implications.

Through NESCAFÉ Plan, Nestlé Vietnam commits to making significant contributions to the development of Vietnamese coffee, boosting its value and realising the targets and values the global initiative brings to farmers, communities, and the planet.

The following are pictures from the Vietnamese Coffee Day 2018 in Dak Nong province.