VOA慢速英語:Vietnam's Big Year for Coffee, Rice Exports

[03:54.69]This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. [00:05.77]This is a big year for Vietnamese rice and coffee exports. [00:11.48]Vietnam became the biggest coffee exporter, [00:15.09]and it may also become the top rice supplier to the world. [00:20.64]The country has long been second in rice exports. [00:25.55]But this year Vietnam is expected to pass Thailand [00:30.55]by about half a million tons. [00:34.26]For the long term, Vietnam [00:37.32]is increasing the quality of its rice and looking [00:41.22]to expand in the Chinese market. [00:44.09]Vietnam became the top coffee exporter this year [00:48.41]because of bad weather in Brazil. [00:51.51]But some say Vietnamese agricultural policies [00:55.38]may not help the country stay on top for long. [00:59.83]Le Ngoc Bau is director of Vietnam's Western Highlands [01:05.62]Agro-Forestry Scientific and Technical Institute. [01:10.24]LE NGOC BAU (TRANSLATED): "Firstly, Vietnam's government [01:12.78]has no policy to expand the area for coffee. [01:15.59]In August of twenty-twelve, the minister of agriculture [01:18.71]made the decision to approve the master plan [01:21.36]to develop the coffee industry to the year twenty-twenty, [01:24.83]and our vision up to the year twenty-thirty. [01:28.18]For this master plan to the year twenty-twenty, [01:30.48]the total area of coffee in Vietnam [01:32.83]will be reduced to five hundred thousand hectares." [01:35.93]Almost all of the beans are robusta. [01:41.55]These have a strong taste and are often [01:45.15]used to make espresso and instant coffee. [01:48.55]They are higher in caffeine and considered lower [01:52.43]in quality than top varieties. [01:55.59]But the chairman of Trung Nguyen, [01:58.25]Vietnam's largest coffee company, [02:00.51]wants to improve the image of his country's beans. [02:04.41]Dang Le Nguyen Vu says they just need to be marketed better. [02:10.18]DANG LE NGUYEN (TRANSLATED): "We have the quantity [02:13.03]and quality of robusta, which is the number one in the world. [02:16.84]But we are lacking one thing -- that is the packing industry, [02:20.80]display industry and storytelling industry, [02:24.52]to make the world understand exactly what the world needs. [02:28.07]Vietnam should be a great nation, not only in quantity." [02:31.97]Ma Chuong has been farming coffee beans [02:35.08]for more than thirty years. [02:36.63]Ma Chuong says a drip irrigation system financed [02:41.72]by the company saves water and labor. [02:44.78]MA CHUONG (TRANSLATED): "In the first year [02:48.29]before we had this system our productivity [02:49.99]was only eight hundred kilograms per hectare. [02:52.05]But in the second year after installing this system, [02:54.20]productivity went up to fourteen hundred kilograms per hectare. [02:57.82]Last year, from our notes from start to end of harvest, [03:00.97]productivity was two thousand forty kilograms." [03:03.42]People in Vietnam do not drink a lot of coffee. [03:07.18]The French started growing coffee beans [03:10.34]in the former colony and influenced the local style of preparation. [03:15.00]John Owens is an American teaching English. [03:19.56]He says he has come to enjoy the strong flavor of [03:24.07]the local drip brew in Buon Ma Thuot, [03:28.02]in Vietnam's coffee-growing heartland. [03:31.33]JOHN OWENS: "I had never heard about it until I came here. [03:34.32]I do not think they market it, or they brand it. [03:35.98]I think they put it with other coffee." [03:39.03]Trung Nguyen is trying to change that [03:41.84]by marketing new coffee products and working [03:45.38]with farmers to improve quality and efficiency in production. [03:49.94]And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. [03:54.24]I'm Christopher Cruise.

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