HCM City (VNS/VNA) - In the 10 years since it began NESCAFÉ Plan, apublic-private partnership programme between Nestlé, the Ministry ofAgriculture and Rural Development, the Western Highlands Agriculture andForestry Science Institute and other partners, has helped improve the qualityof coffee beans and increase farmers’ incomes by 30 percent.

It has sofar distributed 46 million high-yield, disease-resistant coffee saplings tofarmers and helped rejuvenate over 46,000ha of aged coffee plantations in theCentral Highlands, said Pham Phu Ngoc, chief representative of Nestlé Vietnamoffice for the region.

It has alsoprovided training to over 260,000 coffee farmers in best practices to improvequality and ensure sustainable farming and helped over 21,000 farmers achieve4C international certification, he said.

Besides, ithelps protect the environment by reducing water use by 40 percent andfertiliser and pesticide use by over 20 percent, he added.

Todd Yates,technical director, Nestlé Vietnam, said: “Through NESCAFE Plan, we have alsohelped further strengthen the reputation of Vietnam as a source of high-qualitycoffee. Nestlé uses coffee beans produced by farmers under the NESCAFÉ Plan inmany of our products which are, in turn, distributed to more than 25 countriesacross Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Oceania.

“Thisincludes markets with very high standards for quality and compliance such asJapan, Korea, the United States, and several countries in the European Union.”

Phan Tan Luyen,a farmer in Eaktur Commune, Dak Lak province, said: “Following the instructionsfrom the programme’s experts has helped me reduce irrigation costs and usefertilisers properly.

“I have alsolearnt how to make organic fertiliser from coffee husk to fertilise our coffeetrees, which helps reduce disease and increases productivity from three tonnesper hectare previously to 4-4.5 tonnes now.”

Nguyen HacHien, deputy director of Dak Lak province’s Crop Protection Sub-department,said: “The programme has brought practical benefits to coffee farmers in Dak Lak,the country’s largest coffee cultivation locality.”

But theprovince’s coffee sector faces several problems such as small scale ofproduction, ageing coffee trees, poor quality control, and impacts of climatechange, he said.

The provincehas implemented a programme to develop its coffee sector in a sustainablemanner. It seeks to enhance co-operation with the NESCAFÉ Plan to help developits coffee sector, he said.

Binu Jacob,CEO of Nestlé Vietnam, said “Despite the NESCAFÉ Plan’s achievements from thepast decade, we are not content to rest on our laurels. We believe that Vietnam,while already the world’s top producer of Robusta coffee, still has a lot ofpotential to grow.”

His companywould continue to add value to Vietnamese coffee by increasing the volume ofprocessed coffee for both the domestic and export markets.

It wouldwork with farmers and other coffee stakeholders to improve and monitoragricultural practices and expand the adoption of sustainable farming methods,drive the circular economy by strengthening sustainability across the coffeevalue chain from farming to production and bring new product choices to youngand demanding local consumers.

“We aim forthe NESCAFÉ Plan to help deliver one of Nestlé’s overall goals which is to unlockthe power of food to enhance quality of life for everyone today and generationsto come.”

Nestlé isthe biggest buyer of coffee in Vietnam, buying about 20-25 percent of thecountry’s total output or 600-700 million USD worth a year./.