DakLakProvince's Export during International Integration

Export is an advantage of Dak Lak province based on its favourable conditions for industrial crops such as coffee, rubber, cashew nuts and black pepper, maize and beans, and fruit trees, including avocado and jackfruits. Dak Lak’s coffee production output accounts for 60 per cent of Vietnam’s output and Vietnam is Vietnam is the second largest coffee exporter, just behind Brazil.

 

In recent years, Dak Lak has become one of the provinces earning high export turnover with an average growth rate of between seven and eight per cent. In 2005, the province’s export value reached US$303million. The figure of the first quarter of 2006 was put at over US$100 million. Apart from its major exports, including coffee, rubber, black pepper, honey, cassava starch, Dak Lak has gradually exported other products, including wood handicrafts, textiles and garments.  

However, export turnover of coffee still accounts for over 85 per cent of the province’s export value and contributes around 60 per cent to the province’s gross domestic product (GDP), generating jobs for over half a million people. The province’s goods have been exported to 67 countries and territories, including hard-to-please markets.

In order to promote its export of goods, Dak Lak has boosted its trade promotion activities alongside improving competitiveness of its goods. The Dak Lak trade service has developed a goods and service export programme throughout 2010. The province has set up its trade and tourism promotion centre and export assistance fund in order to provide support for local exporting enterprises. Also, a council has been set up to provide timely advices for the province about its operation of the production, processing and export of coffee.

 

In an effort to increase export value of goods in the global market, Dak Lak province has built trademarks for its exported products in general and Buon Ma Thuot coffee in particular. The trademark Buon Ma Thuot was recognised by the Intellectual Property Agency and announced during the Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Festival in late 2005. The trademark has a geographic origin value and is protected nationwide. This may be considered as a momentum for Buon Ma Thuot coffee’s export and its trade promotion and competitiveness improvement in the coming time.

 

Dak Lak province is investing in building the Buon Ma Thuot coffee market in combination with transaction floor, which is expected to start operation in late 2006. This will be a modern online trading floor in the Central Highlands, which is the beginning step for the building of an international trading floor for farm-produce and coffee.

 

In the 2006-2010 period, the Dak Lak trade service has set development targets as follows: to continue to prioritise resources for export development, thus making sure that the province’s economy will be sustainable; to increase processed and clean products or technology-condensed products, reducing the contribution of unprocessed materials in the province’s export turnover. Export should go along with import to meet the requirement of industrialisation and modernisation of Dak Lak’s economy, thus helping improve the competitiveness of the economy, goods and services of enterprises when Vietnam has implemented its commitments with economic organisations, including AFTA (ASEAN Free Trade Area), APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation Forum), FTA (Free Trade Agreements) and the Vietnam-US Bilateral Trade Organisation, as well as forthcoming the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

 

In its programme on goods and service export throughout 2010 and its orientations until 2020, Dak Lak trade service has identified coffee, rubber, cashew nuts, black pepper, wood and wood products, and honey as exports of comparative advantages. In the mean time, cacao and handicrafts have potential with export markets. Products, including maize, soyabean, green bean, peanuts, cotton and husbandry products, face difficulties in export markets.

 

In order to change its export structure from raw materials to processed products of higher added value, the local trade service has called for enterprises and support from centrally-run agencies to establish the province’s trade promotion fund. Also, enterprises are encouraged to apply modern technology to preserve and process farm-produce to reduce post-harvest losses, increase value of goods and meet the international quality standard, diversifying products for local market and export.

 

Dak Lak will mobilise all resources of all economic sectors in the province, from other localities and foreign countries to develop infrastructure facilities, renew technology and equipment, thus diversifying products for export, such as powder and instant coffee. Plants for processing fruit, maize starch and cacao prove concrete solutions for promoting export development. Another solution is to promote the trademark of Buon Ma Thuot coffee on the mass media in Vietnam and foreign countries. The province has encouraged exporting enterprises to develop their trademarks as Trung Nguyen coffee did, and join international trading floors LIFFE/NYBOT to increase the effectiveness of transactions to minimise risks.

 

With its potential for producing goods for export alongside efforts by exporting enterprises and orientations and guides of the local authorities, in the near future, Dak Lak will become a key economic region of Vietnam, capable of exporting various goods apart from products of industrial crops.

 

Volumes of some of Dak Lak products supplied in the market include over 400,000 tonnes of coffee, 18,000 tonnes of rubber, 5,000 tonnes of cashew nuts, 3,000 tonnes of black pepper, 600,000 tonnes of maize, 5,000 tonnes of honey, 15,000 tonnes of cotton and around 30,000 tonnes of cassava starch.