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In Vietnam, the macadamia planted area is about 16,554 ha. Photo: Internet.

Richness thanks to macadamia

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, macadamia has been grown in 23 provinces across the country so far. In addition to domestic consumption, macadamia products are also exported to some regional markets such as Japan, Korea, Taiwan (China) and China.

DakLak is one of the typical provinces of macadamia with about 1,300 ha (1,100 ha intercropped and 200 ha under pure cultivation). Bui Van Cuong, Secretary of DakLak Provincial Party Committee saidaccording to research data in Krong Nang district, intercropping yield density is 5 tonnes / ha and pure planting for more than8 tonnes / ha. The local macadamia nuts are of good quality and the cost is about 70,000 VND / kg of fresh macadamia, which has helped many families gradually eradicate hunger and reduce poverty.

In other localities like Lai Chau, macadamia is also a crop to help many families change their lives. Tran Tien Dung, Chairman of Lai Chau Provincial People's Committee, saidLai Chau is a difficult locality when developing agriculture due to the difficult terrain for large-scale production. Along with that, the production level of farmers is very limited, so economic development from agriculture is always a problem that concernsprovincial leaders. The province has determined that macadamia is a tree suitable for the soil and suitable for cultivation. In addition, this is a tree that will bring great forest cover.

“We have issued a resolution to issue a policy to support seed facilities and individuals participating in macadamia cultivation. Specifically, farmers were supported with 100% of seeds, intercropping households were supported with 6 million VND / ha and specialized growers were supported 10 million VND / ha. The last macadamia crop, fresh macadamia cost 70,000 VND / kg. In households with intercropping area there is the clearest comparison in terms of economic value, while the tea area for about 50 million VND / ha, macadamia is worth more than 100 million VND / ha,” Dung said.

Besides Lai Chau and DakLak, Lam Dong is another province where farmers have obtained fruits from macadamia. Pham, Vice Chairman of People's Committee of Lam Dong Province, said although macadamia is newly developed locally, there is great potential, so there are 28 purchasing and processing establishments and threechains linking production, processing, consume. The main products are dried macadamia nuts and dried macadamia kernels packed according to specifications for markets such as supermarkets, airports, convenience stores and exported to South Korea, China, Japan, Thailand andAustralia.

Plants bringhigh economic value

Regarding the prospect of developing macadamia products in the future, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ha Cong Tuan stated that both world output and demand increased rapidly with a 9% peryear increase in supply and 12% per annum of demand. By 2025 and 2030, the supply is less than demand, equivalent with 33,600 and 74,000 tones / year, respectively. This is an important basis for Vietnam to develop a macadamia material area and participate in the market for this product in 2021-2030 and beyond.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development determined that in the future, macadamia trees will be developed sustainably in the northwest, Central Highlands and regions with similar climatic and soil conditions to ensure economic, social and environmental efficiency, as well asimprove productivity and quality of macadamia trees through research, selection and creation of new varieties, applying appropriate technical measures andforming concentrated crop areas to meet raw materials for the production of products.

One of the main solutions outlined to develop macadamia is to build a system of preliminary processing and processing facilities ona suitable scale to the raw material areas; research and apply advanced technology in preliminary processing and deep processing to create high quality macadamia products such as nutritional foods, cosmetics andpharmaceuticals to serve domestic consumption and export. In addition, to research and timely forecast markets for macadamia products domestically and internationally to orient their development andbranding for Vietnamese macadamia products is also an important solution to be considered,said Deputy Minister Ha Cong Tuan.

Regarding organization linking production, leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said they will promote the implementation of policies to encourage enterprises to link with farmers to invest in building material areas, processing and consuming macadamia products; to encourage all economic sectors to associate with investment in quality-assured seed production and trading establishments, fine-processing establishments and product diversification.

Around the macadamia development story, speaking at the conference on the results of developing macadamia in Vietnam, the time and orientation in DakLak on September 29, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc emphasized strongly that macadamia is the key tree giving good profit and it is impossible for farmers to have "single-handedness" in developing this crop.

“To develop adequately, it is necessary to have sub-regional planning for macadamia trees together with processing and deep processing. The banking industry needs to support this product by proposing a credit-specific policy for macadamia. Along with that, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development must coordinate with localities and associations to develop a strategy for macadamia development in Vietnam and submit to the Prime Minister to consider issuing a decree on macadamia development in the coming time,” the Prime Minister said.