Growing cocoa among fruit trees increases profits up to 50 million VND/ha

In Tien Giang, in a year, planting cocoa trees in fruit gardens will bring farmers an additional profit of 40-50 million VND/ha.

To date, Tien Giang province has expanded the cocoa area to over 2,300 hectares, mainly intercropped in coconut gardens and other fruit gardens. To meet the export demand to the US and European markets, farmers in Tien Giang province have planted 300 hectares of organic cocoa with 720 households, leading the country.

This is a GAP-oriented planting model, ensuring biological safety and limiting chemical fertilizers. At this time, the price of organic cocoa is 70,000 VND/kg of dry beans, about 7,000 VND/kg higher than regular cocoa. In a year, planting cocoa trees in fruit gardens will bring farmers an additional profit of 40-50 million VND/ha.

Currently, the cocoa fruit in Tien Giang province is not enough to meet the purchasing demand of 4 large enterprises with agents in this locality. Talking about the prospect of cocoa trees, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Hanh, Deputy Director of the Department of Science and Technology of Tien Giang province shared: "Tien Giang has a cocoa development project approved by the Provincial People's Committee of 5,000 hectares. In fact, over 2,000 hectares have been developed. The province has established an Executive Board to implement the cocoa development project, this is also a direction to focus on investment to bring income to farmers. And if any farmer is interested in doing business on his garden, growing cocoa trees is also a good stable direction"./.

According to rural economy