Building a business with cocoa

Dak Lak Province, Vietnam

H’Bim and her two children live in Krong Village in the Lak District of Dak Lak Province, Vietnam.  In 2007, H’Bim was struggling to support her family on a small plot of maize and rice supplemented with wage labor.  It was barely enough to cover the costs of food, and the family experienced some instances of hunger. 

She signed up for SUCCESS Alliance, planted 500 seedlings and eventually became a training facilitator.  She started in 2007 by facilitating one cocoa club of 40 members.  She was so successful with this group that the following year she was asked to work with two additional cocoa clubs of 40 members each. 

This is the first year that the cocoa trees are producing pods and the farmers are beginning to realize the results of their hard work and training.

Throughout her community, the farmers in H’Bim’s clubs are realizing the benefits of cocoa cultivation. Neighbors such as Y Bec Na Kuan and Y Wiet Nie, who used to grow maize and cashews with low returns, describe the success of adopting and intercropping cocoa: “We are very happy with cocoa’s good price. Many cocoa club members intend to buy more cocoa seedlings to grow, while others want to grow cocoa for the first time. We may need to organize one more cocoa club in our village!”

H’Bim too is experiencing success.  She has already harvested two metric tons of fresh pods this year and purchased an additional 1.6 metric tons from other club members.  She then ferments the beans deriving 1 kg of beans for every 12-13 kg of fresh cocoa fruit.  Because of the high quality of the cocoa, H’Bim often receives a bonus. 

These positive results have led H’Bim to expand her farm.  She explains, “I’ve bought an additional 3,000 square meters of land to grow 300 more cocoa trees.  If I have one hectare of cocoa, I could earn 90 million Vietnamese dong [approximately US$4,700] from selling fresh pods or 110 million [approximately US$5,700] if they are fermented.  With that, I could buy my own car!” 

She has also identified new business opportunities.  “This year, I will set up a dryer to dry cocoa in the rainy season and will cultivate 4,000 Leucaena seedlings to sell to other farmers,” she says referring to a type of tree commonly used to shade cocoa and coffee. 

WCF thanks ACDI/VOCA for contributing this story.

Read about SUCCESS Alliance Vietnam - Central Highlands