The Nestle Group is carrying several major projects with the aim ofpopularising Vietnamese coffee among coffee consumers all over the worldand making Vietnam an international reference for robusta coffee, said aNestle executive. Executive Vice President forNestle Nandu Nandkishore, responsible for Asia, Oceania and Africa, toldthe Hanoi Moi (New Hanoi) newspaper that the recent inauguration ofNestle’s 80-million USD factory in southern Dong Nai province not onlymarks a new step forward in the group’s presence in Vietnam but alsodemonstrates that Nestle is continuing to carry out its commitment tothe community, coffee farmers and consumers in the country. The Dong Nai factory, Nestle’s second facility to producede-caffeinated coffee beans in the world, will use only Vietnameserobusta coffee beans, and its product will be supplied to Nestleprocessing facilities around the world, according to the executive. It is expected to raise the production value for Vietnamese coffeefarmers as well as the Vietnamese coffee reputation in internationalmarkets, he said. Since 2011, the company has alsoassisted coffee farmers in the Central Highlands in replacing old treesin a bid to improve productivity and production value, with a total of11 million coffee seedlings to be supplied at half the price by the endof 2015. The project also opened technical trainingcourses to more than 20,000 local farmers to spread the application ofgood farming practice. At the same time, Nestlejoined the public-private partnership project in coffee production, aninitiative put forward at the World Economic Forum 2010. With thecollaboration of other partners such as 4C and Rainforest Alliances, theproject has been building model coffee farms and training farmers insustainable farming techniques, contributing to reducing productioncosts, environmental impact and raising productivity and income forfarmers. According to the executive, Nestle’sinvestment in Vietnam now totals 450 million USD, but the investmentcarries a greater significance than merely an expansion of business. The inauguration of the Dong Nai factory and farmingprojects that Nestle is carrying out in Vietnam demonstrate the group’sconfidence in the country, where it has been operating successfully formore than 20 years, he said. Vietnamese coffee isavailable in more than 80 countries and territories across the world,making the country the second largest coffee exporter in the world, onlyafter Brazil. The country is currently theworld's leading exporter of robusta coffee. Last year, it earned 3.62billion USD from shipping 1.73 million tonnes of coffee abroad, up 33.4percent in volume and 32.2 percent in value. Germany and the US remained the two largest importers of Vietnamesecoffee in 2014, accounting for 14.13 percent and 10.17 percent,respectively, of the country's total coffee export turnover.-VNA