Press Release

November 9, 2006

Contact: Perry Letson
(202) 879-0269

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Third Annual SUCCESS Alliance International Conference held in Vietnam

The 3rd Annual SUCCESS Alliance International Conference, with the theme of “Strengthening the Smallholder Link in the Cocoa Value Chain,” was held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, October 31–November 3, 2006. The conference was sponsored by ACDI/VOCA as part of its U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded cocoa development program in Vietnam.

Over 150 participants from cocoa producing countries in Asia and Latin America attended. Besides SUCCESS Alliance partners, stakeholders throughout the cocoa value chain were represented including farmers, donors, Vietnamese, Filipino, Indonesian and Papua New Guinean government representatives, NGOs, industry representatives and academia.

The conference was held in Indonesia in 2004 and the second in the Philippines in 2005. Mr. Ross Jaax, ACDI/VOCA’s chief of party in Vietnam, commented, “This year’s conference is especially exciting because the Alliance has grown so much in size and scope. We are fortunate to have all the current and future leaders of the Asian smallholder cocoa industry involved.”

Topics relevant to the sustainable development of smallholder cocoa farmers were covered:  public-private partnerships, service provision and vertical integration, technology transfer, the health benefits of cocoa, research applicable to smallholder farmers, beneficial clonal varieties, monitoring and evaluation, cultural management practices and research.

Conference highlights included remarks by Carl Leonard, President of ACDI/VOCA, Bui Ba Bong, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development for Vietnam, David Brunell, Chief Technical Officer, USAID/Hanoi and Tracey Duffey of the World Cocoa Foundation.   

Cross-fertilization of ideas from other projects was a feature of the conference. Steve McCarthy, ACDI/VOCA Senior Technical Associate, spoke on lessons learned in developing smallholder coffee in Ethiopia, and Donald Taylor, ACDI/VOCA chief of party in India, shared ideas on working with the private sector to improve smallholder livelihoods.

There were two days of field trips. On one, participants traveled to Ben Tre province to visit farms, small scale nurseries and fermentaries, and saw an innovative solar drier. Participants then visited the Cocoa Bean Quality Assurance Facility at the Department of Science and Technology to learn how the quality of Vietnamese cocoa will be assured well into the future. On day two, the participants traveled to Ba Ria Vung Tau province where they saw a large nursery facility and observed how clonal seedlings are mass produced to achieve the highest quality and yields for the farmer. Two additional farms that use a mixed-crop cocoa production system were also visited. The final part of the trip included a visit to Dong Nai province to visit the clonal breeding replicant trial site being managed by Nong Lam University with support from the World Cocoa Foundation and Mars, Inc.

SUCCESS Alliance Conference attendees visit a cocoa nursery in Ba Ria-Vung Tau.

For the past two years ACDI/VOCA through the SUCCESS Alliance has worked to establish Vietnam as a premier cocoa producing country. This high-value crop promises to diversify the income and improve the livelihoods of 17,000 smallholder farmers in four provinces of the country. The conference allowed for a valuable exchange of ideas among the parties active in developing cocoa.

The Sustainable CoCoa Enterprise Solutions for Smallholders (SUCCESS) Alliance was established in 2000 to address constraints to sustainable cocoa production and marketing to increase the competitiveness of the cocoa sector. Its mission is to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers by promoting cocoa production and marketing in a way that is economically, environmentally, socially and culturally sustainable. 

The Alliance receives funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and USAID. Private sector partners include the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) and Mars Inc. ACDI/VOCA, a U.S. nonprofit development organization, implements the project. The Alliance also includes international and local organizations in Ecuador, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

For 43 years and in 145 countries, ACDI/VOCA has empowered people in developing and transitional nations to succeed in the global economy. ACDI/VOCA is a nonprofit international development organization that delivers technical and management assistance in agribusiness systems, financial services, enterprise development and community development in order to promote broad-based economic growth and vibrant civil society. ACDI/VOCA currently has approximately 90 projects in 40 countries and revenues of approximately $85 million. For more information about ACDI/VOCA, visit www.acdivoca.org.

More about the conference as covered by two Vietnamese media outlets:
http://www.giaothuong.net/tintuc/modules.php?name=News&op=ndetail&n=6233&nc=1077
http://www.vnagency.com.vn/pPrint.aspx?itemid=169311