A worker collects ripen coffee bean in the Central Highland province of Dak Lak. - Photo Y5cafe

HA NOI (VNS) — The coffee industry would receive preferential credit loans of VND8-10 trillion (US$380.95-476.19 million) from now until 2016 to implement a programme to recultivate old coffee crops, said Governor of the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) Nguyen Van Binh.

At a conference held last week in the central province of Lam Dong to implement a credit loan programme for the coffee sector in the 2013-15 period, Binh stressed the need to assist Central Highlands coffee growers in increasing coffee quality and productivity.

Under the programme, local coffee farmers will enjoy low interest rates from the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank) with the SBV refinancing Agribank VND5 trillion ($239 million) at annual interest of roughly 5 per cent.

More than VND3 trillion will be given to coffee growers in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, the country's second largest coffee cultivation area.

According to Lam Dong's 2013-15 plan, the province will develop coffee plantations of 23,000ha with a total investment of nearly VND4.43 billion, including more than VND3 trillion funded by Agribank. Roughly 50,650ha of the province's coffee crops are old with low yields and need to be recultivated.

Last year, the province had a yield of 78,560 tonnes of coffee from a cultivation area of 145,735ha. — VNS