VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam has decided to develop 250,000 hectares of macadamia, sometimes called the queen of nuts, in the next five years.

A workshop on the macadamia development strategy was held on February 7 in the Central Highlands. This was one of a series of events organized recently relating to the macadamia, which shows Vietnam’s strong determination to develop a growing area for the nut in Vietnam.

Top-ranking General Tran Dai Quang, head of the Central Highlands Development Steering Committee, said the land has all the necessary conditions for growing macadamia, while macadamia could be the goose that lays the golden eggs, helping foster the local economy.

“In the long term, macadamia nuts will be a Vietnamese national product,” Quang said. “Vietnam will appear in the world’s macadamia map and be listed among the top macadamia producers.”

Vietnamese leading scientists, including Professor Hoang Hoe and Professor Nguyen Lan Hung, all said that it was feasible to grow macadamia nuts in the Central Highlands and that the nut would be the key crop to enrich the land.

The national macadamia development program is reportedly going smoothly as bankers have pledged to provide loans.

In order to grow 250,000 hectares of macadamia in the next five years, Vietnam would need total investment capital of VND29 trillion.

Nguyen Duc Huong, deputy chair of LienViet Post Bank, told the press: “We will not only discuss this at the workshop, but we will start right away.”

Huong, an advocate of the macadamia development plan, in April 2014 once mentioned a macadamia growing project in the Central Highlands with initial capital of VND10 trillion.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Tien Dong, director of the Credit Institution Department under the State Bank of Vietnam, said: “Do it (implement the macadamia development program), and the central bank will consider creating reasonable policies on giving funds.”

Concerns

The policies on encouraging the development of macadamia, in fact, were set up in 2013. Decree No 210 stipulates that the state would provide financial support of VND15 million per hectare to macadamia projects with a large scale of over 50 hectares.

However, while the state management agencies, scientists and bankers are excited about the macadamia development plan, farmers have remained silent.

Some years ago, farmers rushed to grow rubber because they were told that the industrial crop would help them get rich.

However, rubber turned out to be a tragedy for local residents. The rubber price unexpectedly tumbled in July 2014 to a level which was 65 percent lower than the highest peak seen in February 2011.

As rubber growers could not make profits at that price, they have chopped down 3,000 hectares over the last six months.

Dat Viet