Alongside expanding growing areas, the northern mountainous province of Dien Bien is promoting production linkages and processing investment to increase agricultural product value. The presence of local macadamia products on Vietnam Airlines flights has opened up new opportunities to promote the province’s produce to wider markets.
Macadamia, first grown in the northern province of Dien Bien in 2013, has not only helped stabilise the livelihoods of local farmers but has also opened up a new direction for local agriculture.
The first batch of Krong Nang macadamia nuts was officially exported to Japan on November 9, with a ceremony held in Krong Nang district in the Central Highlands’ province of Dak Lak to celebrate the milestone.
Macadamia nuts have proven to be a much better cash crop for many farmers in the Central Highlands over the last five years, but localities must exercise caution in developing planting areas to avoid unsustainable rapid growth.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on September 29 assigned the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to build a development strategy for the macadamia sector, with planning, varieties, markets, and investment capital to all be taken into account.
As an ideal location for tropical trees that require high humidity, the northern mountainous province of Son La plans to cultivate macadamia trees on 1,000 ha by 2020.
Each farmer household in Lam Ha district, Lam Dong, can borrow between 50-80 million VND (2,200 – 3,500 USD) from LienVietPostBank to develop forests in tandem with expanding macadamia growing area.
The Lien Viet Post Joint Stock Commercial Bank (LienVietPostBank) will give central Quang Tri province a credit package worth 500 billion VND (22 million USD) to help the locality develop macadamia farming.
The Vietnam Macadamia Association (VMA) and Australian Macadamia Society (AMS) recently signed an agreement to boost the industry in both countries, according to Lao Dong newspaper.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on April 5 approved a plan to develop Macadamia farming in the northwestern and Central Highlands regions by 2020.
