Which projects and events do you think VINACAS has organised that significant?

Some of them I can tell are:

• The program of growing cashew trees to cover bald hills and vacant land that assigned by the Government in 1990. This is a national program which the Government set 2 goals: prevent erosion during wet season, improve the environment and lives of farmers, especially the minority groups.

• Decision 120 on 17 Sep 1999 – the Government approved targets and goals of cashew industry development plan from 2000 to 2010 with the vision until 2020. This was the first Decision from the Government to guide Vietnam cashew industry, with supports, strategies and visions provided by VINACAS. Content and targets of this Decision were humble but showed new path for Vietnam cashew industry: Improve processing and production as well as output capacity of cashew trees.

• Project coded KC07/DA13/08-10 which I supervised. The goal was to “Develop and finalise the technology and automatic machinery for cutting and peeling cashew nuts”. This was the first national-level scientific project which VINACAS had led. The project was a huge success that improves the efficiency of cashew processing technology 10 times. According to experts in the agriculture industry, this is truly a revolution of science and technology in Vietnam cashew industry. It was a hit that transform the industry from manual to industrial and automatic.

• “The Golden Cashew” festival in Mar 2010 organised by Binh Phuoc province, with support from VINACAS. This festival attracted huge attention from farmers, processors, medias, politicians from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and experts from INC. The success of the festival has brought Vietnam to a new level in the international nuts and dried fruits industry.

• The project “Vietnam Cashew Value” organised by VINACAS in 2014 which study Binh Phuoc cashews. The result has impressed Vietnam consumers about the nutrition value of Vietnam cashew. This led to an increased demand domestically especially the flavoured-cashew product lines.

• The Memo of Cooperation for Development in Cambodia based on the recommendation of Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery of Cambodia. The purpose of this project is to promote and support Cambodia to be one of the top cashew processor countries in the world with 500ha of cashew farm, output capacity of 1 mil of kernels by 2030.

• Commercial Agreement and Cooperation between Vietnam and West African countries. These bilateral and multilateral trade agreements improve and stabilise the material supply and suggest solutions for potential disputes. Some of the contracts or agreements had challenges in the beginning but they are being eased and improving.