The sad ending of coffee trees in Phu Quy land

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In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the colonization of Indochina was at its peak, the French colonialists realized thatPhu Quy areaNghe An is a place with a climate and land suitable for growing and developing industrial crops originating from Latin America such as: coffee, rubber, tea, tung, orange, pineapple... Therefore, from around 1913, the colonial government put pressure on the feudal government to seize land and establish a large plantation area with tens of thousands of hectares in the Phu Quy area to grow coffee.

In just a short time, French plantation owners and a few Vietnamese people occupied about 15,498 hectares of land, mainly for exploiting forest products and growing coffee. Among them, there were plantation owners who owned large areas of land such as: Walther owned 6,000 hectares in Dong Hieu, Tay Hieu (Nghia Dan); Saintard owned 500 hectares in Nghia Hop (Nghia Dan), or Lapic et Société Company in Nghia Hung (Nghia Dan) with an area of ​​7,560 hectares... After occupying the land, the plantation owners built specialized coffee growing areas such as: Nai Sinh, Tram Lui (Dong Hieu); Ba Trieu (19/5 Farm area); Hung Lam, Cao Trai, Quan Mit, Phu Thuan, Cat Mong (Tay Hieu). Coffee from plantations here is mainly exported to France under the label "Arabica du Tonkin" (Arabica Coffee from Tonkin), and the quality is considered equivalent to coffee from Brazil and Colombia.

After the August Revolution of 1945, the French fled, and the large plantations of hundreds and thousands of hectares were nationalized into Phu Quy National Farm. By 1956, Phu Quy National Farm was divided into two state-owned farms, Dong Hieu Farm and Tay Hieu Farm. At this time, coffee was the main crop, covering the red basalt land with green. When mentioning Phu Quy land, people mentioned coffee trees, and the saying "South Dak Lak, North Phu Quy" was a definition of coffee trees in this land.

According to engineer Le Dinh Dinh - who has been attached to the Tay Hieu Tropical Plant Experiment Station (under the Industrial Crops Institute - Ministry of Agriculture) and now the Phu Quy Fruit and Industrial Plants Research Center, since the early days of taking over the French plantations, said: The Phu Quy area has more than 13,400 hectares of basalt soil, which has become a prime location of Nghe An suitable for coffee trees. Since the French colonial period, a French plantation owner also built a research station in the Cao Trai area, also known as "Station de Cao Trai" (now Cao Trai village, Nghia Thanh commune, Nghia Dan district), hundreds of hectares wide, just to study soil quality and test planting coffee varieties. Initially, Robusta coffee and Jackfruit coffee were grown in Phu Quy, but later they did not give high efficiency. When they researched and successfully introduced the Arabica coffee variety into cultivation, it gave delicious fruit quality, recognized and favored by many countries in the world.

The characteristic of Arabica coffee beans is that they do not have the bitter taste of jackfruit coffee beans, nor the sour aftertaste of Robusta coffee beans. The bitter taste of Arabica coffee beans is both stimulating and smooth, especially the aroma is extremely attractive. Arabica coffee trees are grown in many localities such as Lam Dong, Dak Lak, Quang Tri but the flavor is not like that of Phu Quy.

“For Arabica coffee, altitude above sea level affects quality, so scientists often recommend growing at altitudes above 600m, even 1,000m. However, in Phu Quy, the Arabica coffee growing areas have altitudes of only 50-80m, the trees still grow well, and the delicious flavor is favored by the market” – engineer Le Dinh Dinh emphasized.

Engineer Dinh also said that when he was still working, many foreign delegations and overseas Vietnamese came to Phu Quy to learn about coffee. In 1990, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Egypt visited the land of Phu Quy. Even an overseas Vietnamese in France, a descendant of a plantation owner in Phu Quy who now has a coffee business in Paris, also came here to learn about the type of coffee that his family used to grow here. However, the most regrettable thing is that Phu Quy coffee has not built a separate brand or specific geographical indication. Until now, when the coffee tree has officially disappeared, the desire for a separate coffee brand of Phu Quy is still a concern for those who love this land.

Sad ending

There were times when coffee was identified as a key industrial crop of Nghe An. In particular, in more than 13,400 hectares of red basalt soil in Phu Quy area, there were times when there were more than 7,000 hectares of coffee plantations. At one point, the coffee area was expected to be expanded to 9,400 hectares or 10,000 hectares to produce 9,300 tons to 10,000 tons of coffee beans.

However, coffee trees in Phu Quy cannot withstand harsh practical conditions, especially soil degradation, many types of pests, excessive use of pesticides... causing the coffee tree area to decrease sharply. In addition to the fact that the coffee tree area has decreased dramatically from about 7,000 hectares to 500 hectares in 2005-2006 and to more than 100 hectares in 2012-2013, what surprises many people the most is that up to now, the coffee trees have been completely wiped out.

Mr. Hoang Thanh Tung - Deputy General Director of Nghe An Coffee - Rubber One Member Limited Liability Company shared: Previously, when mentioning Tay Hieu 1, Tay Hieu 2, Dong Hieu, people mentioned coffee trees. But for about 10 years now, coffee trees have gradually been replaced by short-term crops with stable income such as cassava, sugarcane and some high-value industrial crops such as rubber... Not to mention, for a long time, due to the abuse of pesticides, the land has been degraded, while the life cycle of a coffee tree is only about 20-30 years. If not well cared for, it will not have high productivity.

Mr. Tung also shared that in Phu Quy, Arabica coffee is the most suitable type, but this type has the characteristics of low productivity, flowers bloom in clusters, and when picking, the fruit must be trimmed individually, not stripped like other types of coffee, so the care and harvesting costs will be greater. In the same area, if you grow Arabica coffee, it will cost more than other types of coffee. This is also the reason why this type of crop has been lost. Not to mention, many people who value profit have grown crops that are quickly harvested such as cassava, sugarcane, and grass for livestock rather than growing coffee.

We asked, will it be possible to restore coffee trees on Phu Quy land one day? Mr. Tung suddenly sighed and said, “If there is funding, then maybe!…”.

What makes Mr. Tung worried is which coffee variety to use and what strategy to plan. If he replants coffee, it means having to start the cycle from planting, caring, harvesting to building a product consumption chain, building a brand... How many people can accept spending 4-5 years on basic construction and then waiting for the coffee tree to harvest when they are not sure that it can compete with other types of coffee. Not to mention, in recent years, coffee prices have fluctuated, making it very difficult for coffee growers to be patient and invest.

The reasons mentioned above are what makes coffee trees gradually disappear from Phu Quy land - where more than 100 years ago it became a branded crop for the red basalt land. But anyway, this is also a big lesson for the agricultural sector in land use planning and appropriate crop structure planning. Because as engineer Le Dinh Dinh commented, "if people did not chase after immediate values ​​but focused on building planning areas, taking care of coffee trees carefully, and building a systematic brand, then coffee trees would not have been lost like now".