An organic coconut grove in Bến Tre Province’s Thạnh Phú District. — VNA/VNS Photo Hồng Đạt

BẾN TRE — The Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Bến Tre has developed value chains for more than 21,000ha of coconut, accounting for 27.5 per cent of its total coconut area.

The country’s largest coconut producing province has 32 co-operative groups and 28 co-operatives with links to nine companies to develop value chains for coconut, according to its Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Huỳnh Quang Đức, deputy director of the department, said about 30 per cent of the province’s coconut products have deep processing for export.

Trần Quốc Ửng, Chairman of the Thới Thạnh Agriculture Co-operative in Thạnh Phú District’s Thới Thạnh Commune, said his co-operative gives priority for growing coconut to organic standards and develops value chains for it.

This is the co-operative’s large advantage because coconut is one of the province’s eight key agricultural products which are chosen for developing value chains, he said.

The co-operative has 85 members who grow nearly 150ha of organic coconut with an annual output of 181,000 nuts.

Farmers growing organic coconut earn a profit of about VNĐ12 million (US$500) per hectare a year higher than those growing non-organic coconut.

The province has developed 600ha of organic coconut so far this year, taking the area of such coconut to 17,846ha, according to the department.

Of this area, 11,418ha have been granted the organic standard certificates of the US, Japan or the EU.

The province has 78,195ha of coconut as of May, up 945ha against the same period last year, according to its Statistic Office.

This accounts for about 50 per cent of the country’s total coconut area.

It is developing six concentrated organic growing areas with a total of 1,826ha and a 22ha concentrated area for growing coconut for drinking juice.

It has granted a production code for 10ha of coconut in Bến Tre City’s Mỹ Thạnh An Commune.

However, the development of value chains for coconut has many limitations as most coconut growing households have small growing areas of 3,000-4,000sq.m.

The linkages between farmers and companies to grow and sell coconut in some places are not sustainable as they often break farm contracts.

To improve the efficiency of value chains, the province will strengthen advocacy activities to enhance the awareness of farmers and officials at grass root levels about the purpose of the linkages in growing coconut and the development of organic coconut.

It is encouraging farmers to grow coconut under standards required by the market and participate in linking with other stakeholders to develop production codes for coconut growing areas.

It is also speeding up providing techniques of growing organic coconut for farmers to improve their growing efficiency. — VNS